Charity Basket Brigade UK held its annual hamper-making event at a school in White Hart Lane two days before Christmas, reports Louis Altmann

The charity Basket Brigade UK made good on its pledge to deliver 1,000 food baskets to vulnerable families around London after hundreds of volunteers descended on Tottenham shortly before Christmas.

Baskets containing Christmas dinners were put together by the volunteers at Mulberry Academy Woodside in White Hart Lane, surrounded by festive decorations and music.

Volunteer drivers then delivered the baskets to the chosen families.

This years’ organiser Vanessa Fernandis said Basket Brigade (BB) has in the last five years produced 5,500 baskets reaching over 20,000 people. This years’ 1,000 baskets were expected to reach 4,000 people, assuming an average of four people per family.

Vanessa said: “Even if we only managed to deliver one basket, we’ve achieved what we need to. It’s really important, especially in the last couple of years with the food crisis being how it is at the minute, there are so many food banks popping up around London, and Christmas time is when people feel it.”

Basket Brigade received charitable status last year, but the event has been held annually since 1995. Chair of trustees Giles Button explained that gaining the status of charity would help similar groups to be set up around the country.

“We have a lot of experience, systems and processes for running a Basket Brigade, so we want to help people do it around the country if they would like. In order to do that, it made sense to take it from its previous vehicle into a registered charity.”

Giles added that the credibility which comes with being registered also made work with other organisations easier. Norwich and Birmingham already have their own events, but Giles and his colleagues are hoping to expand to other cities, for example Bristol.

“Unfortunately we don’t have any communication [with other BBs] because it tends to be run by volunteers that often change each year. What we want to do is create a system where we can say, ‘this is how you do it’”.

Basket Brigade UK was inspired by the work of Tony Robbins, American author and philanthropist, in the 1990s.

The YES Group is a London-based organisation made up of people influenced by Robbins’ work. In 1995, with the initiative of member Liane Pedro, the YES Group set up the first BB event in the UK.

Basket Brigade trustee and YES Group member Tony Snow explained the origins of this modern tradition: “He [Robbins] came from a poor family, his dad was an alcoholic, and one day he opened the door to a basket of food from a stranger […] so when he was about 16 or 17, he went to a store with his own money, bought a couple of bags of food, drove into a poor neighbourhood, and delivered them to people there.

“And the next year, he did a little bit more, and then he got some friends to do it, and it got bigger and bigger, and now it’s
global.”

Giles emphasised the need for Basket Brigade to grow: “What we actually need each year are more organisations that can submit nominations [for basket recipients]. We know there are families out there that we could really help, we just don’t know their information.”

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