Charm Bonaparte at her stall – which has also been used as food bank base

A CHEF has embarked on a “quest to feed the community” amid fears the cost of living crisis has forced many families below the breadline.

Charm Bonaparte, also known as Mama Gee, runs a pop-up kitchen on Hazellville Road near Archway serving Caribbean food.

But she has also been serving free meals during the first lockdown, when her stall was also used as a base for a weekly food bank.

“It all started in the first lockdown, working with Elthorne Pride. They approached me and asked me if I would help supply food for the community,” Ms Bonaparte said.

Ms Bonaparte also got involved with footballer Marcus Rashford’s free school meals campaign, providing free lunches for children who would otherwise go without.

“Something we weren’t expecting was the numbers. We actually ran out of food – I ended up giving the food I was selling away too. Some people were waiting and the queue was going down round Hazellville Road,” she said.

“Over a two-day period we gave away perhaps 400 meals.”

After the Universal Credit top-up of £20 was cut last year, Ms Bonaparte said her neighbours got in touch again.

“A few of the people that I used to give food to during lockdown approached me and said they’d hit hard times: they could get food from the food bank, but they couldn’t cook it because they couldn’t afford to put the electricity or the gas on,” she said.

Realising many residents were facing a difficult Christmas, Ms Bonaparte and her husband decided to put together food parcels; since then, she has been giving free food out to the community every Monday.

Ms Bonaparte hopes to expand it to a three-day-a-week project.

“I would like to turn this into at least a three-day-a-week, because it’s not just Monday people are hungry, people are hungry every day,” she said.

“Today we’ve got curried chicken, stewed chicken, jerk chicken, we have fish, and a vegan option and also you get a free drink”

She added: “It just makes me really sad to see that people can’t eat. It’s bad enough if you can’t keep warm, but something as simple as food that we all take for granted.”

While supermarket prices have risen for a weekly shop, energy bills are expected to rocket this spring when the government’s price cap is extended.

Ms Bonaparte has recently started fundraising for her food project.

“We were doing it out of our own pockets, and I must say that this Christmas was one of the worst in terms of sales,” she said.

“But if you live in Islington or Haringey and you want a meal, you’re more than welcome to come and get a meal – it’s community wide.”