Western International Market, is a fruit and vegetable wholesale market situated in Southall, beside the M4 and close to Heathrow Airport. It is a well-established market and has been in operation since 1974. But a lot has changed since those days.
The cost of living in the UK has risen massively in the last few years. There are now approximately 13 million people in the UK facing food insecurity, many of which are struggling to afford to feed themselves or their families. Every week, The Felix Project rescues more than 250 tonnes of food, that cannot be sold, and delivers it to over 1,000 community organisations and schools in every London borough.
Keith Ward, Chairman of the Tenant's Association at Western International Market: "In early 2023, we were approached by The Felix Project. They wanted to see if we had any surplus food going to waste. Being in the fresh produce business with 60 independent traders, many of whom have multiple units within the market, we have a lot of waste each day. In fact, one of the biggest parts of the service cost for the market is waste removal and my job is to keep these costs down for tenants, so this was a win-win situation for us."
The London Borough of Hounslow, the site owner and market manager (in consultation with the Western International Market Tenants Association), has since given The Felix Project offices within the market, parking and free access for their delivery vehicles. A new dedicated collection point where traders can take the waste produce during the course of the trading night will be implemented shortly. The produce can also be sorted there, before being distributed throughout London.
"In the space of 11 months we have been able to donate 403 tonnes of produce, which is the equivalent of over one million meals distributed to the various charities, communities, food banks which Felix serve. We really want to encourage other food companies/businesses to come on board and do the same, The Felix Project have companies such as Amazon and Ocado on board, Amazon offer to collect the food and distribute it using their own networks and Ocado provides allocated warehouse space for the charity to clean, sort, freeze and re-distribute the food."
For more information:
Keith Ward
Western International Market
Tel: +44 (0)20 8867 5050
[email protected]