I volunteered at a food bank and the kindness shown changed my life

At a time when Mark Setchfield was searching for a sense of purpose and a way to connect with others through the COVID-19 pandemic, the graphic designer fell in love with volunteering at The Felix Project - a food bank that has completely changed his life.

"I wasn't good. I was in a really bad place because I'd been at home for nearly three years and it's isolating," the 54-year-old says as he sits down with HELLO! ahead of World Kindness Day to share how the creation of "a community within a community" reframed his life.

Where it all started

Having moved back to the UK from Dubai mid-pandemic, Mark quickly realised that the unreliability of freelance work and the isolation of remote working was taking a serious toll on his mental health. "It was really difficult," Mark remembers.

"Finding work, not seeing anybody, not socialising - for me, my mental health was all over the place." It was a difficult adjustment having left his lifestyle behind in Dubai and with the cost of living in London.

Looking back, the East London-dwelling designer realises finding the project, which collects surplus food from suppliers and redistributes it to charities, through his flatmate couldn't have come at a better time.

more HELLO! to Kindness

• 10 years on from my cancer diagnosis, kindness is what keeps me going

• I've donated blood 100 times – and it's inspired my family to do the same

What does a shift look like?

Mark started by taking on a Monday morning shift at the project which has branches in all corners of London. "When you've got nothing lined up, Monday mornings are really hard and quite difficult because you think, 'Oh I could just lay in'. So I used to do Monday morning from 8:45 am until 12:30 pm," he recalls.

The volunteer explains that roles at the food bank can range from becoming a driver and delivering food to cutting onions in the industrial kitchen as lots of the crates full of dry and fresh food donated by major supermarkets are used to create batches of ready meals.

These meals are sent out to homeless shelters, women's refuges, and other charities. On average, Mark's depot will create an average of 4000 meals a day.

"The sheer volume is just mind-blowing," Mark says. "I did one shift, and I spent three hours fluffing rice because that's a job."

Being out in the warehouse has also been a rewarding part of Mark's volunteering experience as he has made friends and met others who are keen to give back. He recalls meeting Jan, a fellow volunteer, who also happened to be a freelance graphic designer, with whom he clicked straight away.

"Not only are we both doing something really good, but you're bonding with people. My mental health was elevated from being someone sitting at home and thinking, 'I can't walk around that park again on my own'."

Kindness at work

With the various jobs Mark has taken on as a volunteer for The Felix Project, he has been able to witness the impact it has firsthand.

"It's completely blown my mind. Initially, I thought it would be a few tins and a few bags of flour," he says. "I'm pumping and lifting up these big trolleys around the warehouse and this isn't even the biggest one."

Mark explains: "We went to a local church where they cook food for old-age pensioners so they can have a daily meal…It's a social thing for people who live on their own or live in sheltered housing.

"[A] women's refuge was another one we went to in Hackney because again, they have an internal chef, but they're relying on getting food by working alongside another charity."

The Felix Project also supplies schools with extra fruit. This provides children and families in need with an internal school food bank which they can discreetly go to. "They have food donations within the school [which] make people feel more comfortable and less like you have to go to a food bank to survive," Mark explains.

Mark also sees the impact of the project, which has even been visited by King Charles, when those who work in nearby Canary Wharf in large banks and other firms will be inspired by their work and put in a shift themselves as part of their company's giving back initiative. As a result of this, Mark has become a volunteer trainer.

Kind to the environment

The environmental impact of Mark's kind work should also not be underestimated as so much of the food that is donated or turned into hot meals is saved from going into landfill. Much of the food used is perfectly edible but is past its supermarket sell-by date.

"It's not just fresh stuff, it's all the packaging and stuff," Mark explains. "If you've got bags of flour, you know you're not going to take the flour out - it's just going to be dumped. Plastic wrapping and everything would just go into the landfill."

Mark gives an example of when a pallet stacked with boxes of cheese assortments as high as him was donated to those in need.

"[There was] absolutely nothing wrong with it. They printed the wrong expiry date on the box, so they couldn't put it in the supermarkets. We took all the cheese out of the boxes, put them into big boxes, and then they went out, and you just think that's incredible," he recalls.

The impact of kindness

In between his Monday to Friday work post-pandemic, Mark now fits in a shift wherever he can and implores those willing and interested to do the same. "We have Christmas parties and all get together," he says. "Even if you haven't been there for six months if you can give an hour, it's time that we really need.

Reflecting on the volunteering role he took on one Monday morning three years ago, Mark tells us working with The Felix Project is the most rewarding experience of his life.

He says he has noticed an impact "on so many levels in terms of how I feel, the socialising aspect, and then what I'm giving and doing for a community of people that are quite desperate."

Mark concludes: "A lot of [people] are desperate and you think can a few more people like me get involved and they would never be short on shifts."

To learn more about The Felix Project, visit: www.thefelixproject.org