POP-UP Soup Kitchen founder Trevor Blaney, who has been feeding hungry, homeless people on the Isle of Wight for the past three years, has been named a 'local food hero' at this year's Observer Food Monthly (OFM) Awards.
Trevor's DIY mission to help homeless people who are less visible and excluded from society — those unable to access support services due to addiction and mental health problems, who live in the fields and the woods rather than on the streets — saw him feed dozens of people during the first winter, rising to hundreds.
He told the OFM, in a profile published yesterday (Sunday), that he once gave out 225 meals in just one week.
Thanks to donations from supermarkets, businesses and individual supporters — Trevor said jam made by one Ryde woman was so good, homeless people used it as currency — the soup kitchen has grown to play a vital role supporting some of the Isle of Wight's most vulnerable people.
Other winners at the OFM Awards, judged by a panel of experts and by readers, came from far and wide across the country, and included a pub in Hastings, a fire pit restaurant in Soho and a patisserie in Didsbury.
The late food critic AA Gill won a special editor's award.