Food charity boss 'proud' to receive King's Award

An emergency food charity that has seen a 20% rise in the demand for its service in the past year is among the organisations which have been recognised with a King's Award for Voluntary Service.

Pesh Kapasiawala, from 3food4U, based in Epping Forest, said he was "absolutely proud" to be one of eight groups based in Essex to receive the annual award.

"It's something I never dreamt of being - this big," the charity's founder said.

The award is equivalent to an MBE and is the highest national recognition for voluntary organisations.

Mr Kapasiawala, 56, founded the charity during the Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020 to stop excess food going to waste.

Today, he is supported by a team of about 400 volunteers and supports 2,000 families every week.

He said the organisation differed from a traditional food bank because anyone could refer themselves to the service at any time.

"Some people are embarrassed to go to their GP or their children's school to say they don't have any food at home. We decided to reinvent the whole process from the viewpoint of the service user."

Tania Swanson, director of UTurn, which educates young people aged between 10 and 18 in the Tendring district on crime and violence, said receiving the award as the charity prepared to celebrate its fifth birthday was a "phenomenal achievement".

"We live in a rural area and there's not much in the way of services for young people that are focused on crime and violence in general," the 44-year-old said.

"We would never be able to provide the services we can offer now without our volunteer base behind us."

Nirmal Gupta, founder of the Essex Asian Women's Association, said it was a "tremendous honour" to receive the award.

She said she first had the idea for the group in 2006 when she wanted to bring different groups of friends together.

"We started off at first with just Asian women but then we had our friends who wanted to join and celebrate with us, so we then changed the constitution to accept women from any background."

More than 200 people often attended the association's events in Southend-on-Sea, she added.

Five other Essex-based charities and groups won the King's Award: The Avenue Child Contact Centre, Pace Manningtree, the London Bus Theatre Company, the Music Man Project, and Cool to be Kind.