The People’s Army: no waste kitchen

 

Everyone has an #energystory 6.

Q: How can I help people who need help and not waste resources  or food while I do it?

Each Energy Story interview is inspired by the questions local people ask Islington Faces about cutting carbon/tackling climate change. For this interview our question considers how food banks and food hubs like The People’s Army look after people and use up food that would otherwise be thrown out. Horrifyingly, “One third of food globally goes to waste every year, leading to emissions that weren’t even necessary in the first place” (quote from 3-part BBC show, Climate Change: Ade on the Frontline

Everyone has an energy story. Thanks to Hazel Jhugroo’s efforts to set up a homeless outreach in Islington, volunteers were ready to help The People’s Army spring into action cooking and delivering food just before the Covid-19 lockdown began in 2020 as a coronavirus community response support group. This interview introduces you to The People’s Army founder, Hazel Jhugroo, and some of the volunteers on the Wednesday shift at The Angel Church, including Sophie, Donald, Khalid and Wednesday Head Chef, Tonya Wong. (Friday’s Head Chef Amanda Gowing will be interviewed in a separate post.) Interview and photos by Nicola Baird

Over the past year this amazing volunteer group, with its main kitchen at Prospex Youth Centre near Paradise Park, has brought delicious meals to 100s of Islington residents (and others), especially those who were hungry, isolating or unable to leave their home because of Covid-19. During 2020/21 the People’s Army have used four different kitchens and they have provided ingredients/meals for more than 10 different foodbanks.

For more info about The People’s Army – to volunteer or to get food dropped off – go on to social media, see:

• instagram @thepeoplesarmyldn
• twitter @peoplesarmyldn
• email to offer help, get help (or both): thepeoplesarmy@hotmail.com

FOLLOW ISLINGTON FACES a new interview is published every week. 

Hazel Jhugroo, The People’s Army founder
Hazel Jhugroo is the force behind the People’s Army. Her understanding of the power of social media combined with her ability to ask for what’s needed means that she’s got something amazing running.

“My motto is there’s never a problem, only a solution,” says Hazel while dicing cucumbers for the Greek salad that being made this Wednesday at The Angel Church off Chadwell Street, EC1. “Too many people are worried about rejection but if you don’t ask you don’t get. And the worse people can do is say ‘No!’,” she says before giving a huge laugh. She laughs a lot, and it’s lovely.

Hazel’s energy and skill at asking has brought Tor Skinner to make loads of fun TikToks, attracted superstar chefs from restaurants like the Ivy and brought Islington Masterchef contestant Amanda Gowing in as an under chef (she’s now the Friday head chef, see the interview which will be published on Islington Faces soon). Perhaps most amazingly of all The People’s Army now has the delivery services of the Kaotic Angels LEMC Chapter 4 Seasons biker group (composed of first responders such as paramedics, policeman, firemen and military), whose mission is to fight food hunger. “I messaged them on Instagram,” said Hazel as if chatting to a biker group was the most normal thing in the world. Of course, they said yes to her, and now deliver freshly cooked meals made by The People’s Army to Sandy in Bedfordshire and also to Hertfordshire.”

“I hurt my back lifting,” explains Hazel, 30, who grew up on the Barnsbury Estate and now lives in Drayton Park. “I used to be into fitness and Zumba – all the local Better Zumba instructors know me! But when I hurt my back, I put my energy into other things.” In addition to setting up the People’s Army which provides healthy cooked meals to people who are isolating, or have health reasons for needing dinner delivered, Hazel also recently organised a Feed The 5,000 event in late February after being given “a massive donation of food”. The People’s Army transformed this into 2,350 meals cooked at E5 Babybank and three other kitchens before being shared with people in Edgware, Highbury, Tottenham and Hackney.

So how did the People’s Army start? “Just before Corona my Mum passed away,” explains Hazel. “We don’t come from a big family, it was me and my mum, and we’d wanted to do homeless outreach around Christmas. I tried to start this for 2019, but I’ve got mobility issues. I went on Nextdoor, WhatsApp and every social media to contact people to see if they wanted to help”. Those first Christmas plans didn’t work out ,“but when Corona happened, we had over 200 volunteers able to be a Coronavirus community support response group.”

The first delivery of food for The People’s Army was on 16 March 2020 “before lockdown was even a thing,” says Hazel. Then her plans had to change again when the lockdown began (on 23 March) as “Mutual Aid came along with a structure for shopping and other help, so I started looking for a kitchen to cook food to feed people. My partner said this will go on for more than a year, and he was right!”

Finding a kitchen proved tricky too. Several fell through and then The Angel Church just off St John Street was offered. At first The People’s Army meals were made by volunteer professional chefs on furlough. Soon Hazel was asking chefs from London’s star restaurants to come in and cook, which is why chefs from the Ivy, Tate Modern, Grow, Babelbrunch (catering company) and even The Savoy have been making the meals. When Islington Faces visits, they have a Wednesday chef, Tonya Wong and a Friday chef, Amanda Gowing who are both passionate about being a no waste kitchen – taking donations from shops and supermarkets of food that is close to its use by date but still good to eat. “To work in the kitchen, we always make sure our head chefs have the Level 2 Food Safety & Hygiene qualification.”

Hazel is a very special person. She’s busy with her partner and primary school-aged son and the organising necessary to co-ordinate the People’s Army, but she’s also very clear that these are the good times. “I had a breakdown when I was 15 when the bombs went off in King’s Cross. I was in and out of hospitals for three years. They diagnosed me as bipolar. Mental health matters and I want it to not be taboo as it doesn’t mean that you are less capable,” she says. Regrettably this wasn’t always a healing experience – Hazel talks about, “the lack of care in those hospitals. In one I was assaulted. I remember being dragged off my bed by my legs. My legs and arms were bleeding. I phoned the police and they came.” This sounds an extremely upsetting incident, but Hazel remembers it as a chance to make sure the system was changed so other patients didn’t have to put up with such treatment.

Hazel’s response to Covid-19 and her family bereavement shows the same energetic grit. She’s taken a dream – to help – and by supersonic levels of sharing on the “socials” she’s ensured hundreds of people have got a homecooked meal delivered to their door regularly for more than a year. “Our main cooking site is at Prospex Youth Centre by Paradise Park, and we also use The Angel Church as well as giving ingredients to another volunteer group, Open Door Community Kitchen, which is based in St Mary & Joseph Church on Balls Pond Road.  We also run a foodbank on Mondays which we deliver to primary schools and other charities, like E5 Babybank who we are partnered with.”

“During the lockdowns we made up to 600 meals a day and distributed them to over 10 different centres in London. Even now we are making 200-300 meals a day which we donate to both St Peter’s and Clerkenwell Mutual Aid groups, the Peel in Clerkenwell and usually around 50 people collect from the door. The People’s Army also deliver to 70 people who are in supported housing or have mental health needs. This group will always need food. A lot of people are thinking that as lockdown is lifted, the people we supply won’t need food, but some will always need meals.”

There are always amazing women interviewed in Islington Faces, but it has been an absolute pleasure to meet Hazel. A huge thank you for supporting so many Islingtonians when they really needed it – and for knowing that despite the big corona unlock there are many people who still need support.

==============

Sophie, The People’s Army volunteer
Sophie, 27, is writing the info about today’s meals from The People’s Army on lids. It’s a big task – she’s settled herself at a table with a massive cardboard box that’s filled with new lidded plastic containers. Today there will be around 190 meals to distribute and at about 1.30pm chef Tonya brings over a huge pot of West African lamb and bean stew. In a busy food hub like this, volunteers like Sophie don’t just write what’s in the box and the date, they also have to keep track of the allergens by quizzing the chef. This particular dish has celery and for the portions going out with mash, dairy.

“Hazel and I knew each other in EGA (secondary school),” says Sophie who’s born and bred Islington. “We got reconnected on Facebook and one day I said if you need any extra hands… I was at home a lot and was looking for quite a while for a volunteer role that wasn’t online or wanted a lot of financial skills. Since November 2020 I’ve come here once a week and do many jobs throughout the day. It’s rewarding and useful, and I’ve got addicted to it! It helps me get out of the house and not be so isolated. But I’m not the biggest people person, so when everyone turns up to eat that’s when I go.”

And when things are quiet – which is hard to believe in this socially distanced, but nevertheless busy church hall – you’ll also find Sophie prepping for the chef. “Chopping up a tray of vegetables is OK, it’s got that calming repetitiveness,” she says, “but after chopping here for a few hours I don’t want to do that at home. I like the way we use up as much as we can. A community garden was taking our scraps, but every day we make a tonne of them so we’re looking for another compost site.”

=============

The People’s Army volunteers Donald and Khalid
Visitor Donald is a regular at the Baptist church near Crystal Palace and has come to help because he knows the pastor here, Regan King. Donald is soon helping pick out the best cherry tomatoes for the Greek salad. Khalid in black mask has drawn the toughest job – chopping up the red onions. When Hazel sees Khalid’s eyes are being irritated by the onion task she suggests wearing outsize sunglasses. He politely declines and soon they are all back at work chopping and slicing as they chat to Hazel while she dices the cucumbers.

• Greek salad ingredients: traditionally this is onion, tomato, cucumber, feta cheese and a dressing.

===============

Tonya Wong, Wednesday Head Chef at The People’s Army
“I never thought I’d be doing quite as much cooking,” says Tonya Wong in The Angel Church kitchen where she’s now based on Wednesdays.

Tonya, 51, first learnt about the People’s Army when she saw an ad on Nextdoor for a home cook who’d also be able to make local deliveries. “I’m a self-taught cook, but I do have three children who like to eat different things, so I’d do a roast once a month and then deliver to people in Highbury near where I live,” says Tonya. Despite having to keep her focus on a vast pot of delicious-smelling stew that she’s packed with some of the two cases of donated yellow peppers, Tonya manages to answer questions from the volunteer veg-preppers and Islington Faces and keep chatting to Hazel. At one point Tonya tips 6 kilos of cooked pasta into a giant Tupperware ready for other volunteers to pack ready for the delivery squad, joking that her Wednesday cooking is a “good work out”.

By mid 2020 Hazel suggested Tonya started cooking at the church. “I wasn’t used to making mass quantities of food, so I used to help with prepping for the pastor who was the Wednesday chef (famous for his chilli), then I took over from him in September,” she says.

Tonya’s first stint saw her dealing with a donation of 80 lamb steaks. “I covered them with Moroccan spice and grilled them. Then I added couscous with a spicy tomato sauce. The following week, people were asking for more lamb!” she says with pride. She also loves to cook “lasagne, curry and Asian dishes. Whatever the mood strikes me that week.”

Whatever the challenges of cooking large quantities of food, Tonya is passionate about running a no waste kitchen. “I try to use up everything I have and plan my menu before I come in – but it changes when I arrive, depending on what needs to be used up from our Food Bank and the delivery from the Felix Project on Monday. Today we’re making only 200 meals – the West African lamb and bean stew, a vegan West African stew, a vegan veggie pasta and if there are enough canned tomatoes a beef Bolognese. Every week is a rustle up.”

To Islington Faces, preparing 200 meals seems like a lot, especially when most of the ingredients are created from food that supermarkets felt they couldn’t sell because of their use by dates. “When I say to my friends ‘I only had to do 150 meals’, they think I’m crazy but we need to use up what’s donated. It’s a terrible thought to be wasting good food. Often there are lots of people hungry on our doorsteps, so if we can cook food that might be wasted and then feed people that’s good,” says Tonya who grew up in Canada where she remembers eating food in season – strawberries for just a few weeks, apples and pumpkins in the fall.

Climate change isn’t Tonya’s big focus, but she’s very aware as a food hub chef and home cook that “food is still moving around the world. You have to think about food miles for the way it’s grown and fed. My family used to eat a lot of avocadoes, but we’ve stopped because it takes a lot of water in a way that is very bad for the planet. Also, my children no longer eat beef – the oldest for environmental reasons, the second is a pescatarian (so eats no meat except fish) and the youngest doesn’t like the taste.”

She’s also alert to the importance of recycling packaging because that also cuts down on waste. So, what has she learnt from a year on the food frontline? “Never underestimate yourself,” she says thinking about her cooking stints.

But from a cutting waste perspective she’s got some very positive advice: “If everyone does a bit that all helps. We all need to get big on prepping, lists and using up. For example, with left over bread I make a lot of croutons and breadcrumbs which I freeze in small bags to take out as needed. For example, I don’t always put mash on a cottage pie, sometimes I put croutons on top for a bit of crunch.” Now there’s a good idea. Bon appetit!

• Find details about The People’s Army at the top of the page.

Join the #energystory interviews
Do you have any questions about how to decarbonise your life or tackle climate change, eg, about travel, food, energy use? If so, please send us a message  on email to: islingtonfaces@gmail.com

Over to you
Also if you’d like to nominate someone to be interviewed who grew up, lives or works in Islington, or suggest yourself, please let me know, via islingtonfaces@gmail.com If you enjoyed this post you might like to look at the A-Z  index, or search by interviewee’s roles or Meet Islingtonians to find friends, neighbours and inspiration. Thanks for stopping by. Nicola