Meeting a hero and then getting the chance to help

Mobiles for Meals

Last week at Britmums I had the absolute pleasure of first listening to and then meeting the wonderful Camilla Batmanghelidj from Kids Company.

Camilla - Mobiles for Meals

For a long time I've admired the work she does - providing practical, emotional and educational support to vulnerable inner-city children - children that everyone else has either forgotten about or written off. 


And now I, and you, have the chance to help her - and it's so easy it's impossible not join in. Look who else has:

Katy Hill is among the celebrities supporting Mobiles for Meals

So what's it all about?

Today the first ever appeal to raise money to feed starving BRITISH kids is launched - as devastating new figures from Kids Company and Netmums reveal a million children are going hungry on British streets.

Some shocking statistics have been revealed, for example:

• 25 per cent of inner city schools said three quarters of all pupils are affected by lack of food
• Children from food insecure homes are now missing almost half their weekly meals
• On average, affected children eat just ten meals each week – 11 short of the 21 meals a week needed to stay healthy

Camila, Kids Company founder says, “We are seeing a lot more children struggling to get hold of food.  We have kids who were so starving they stole frozen meat from a flat they visited and they ate it raw.  We’re seeing effectively responsible parents who are just not managing to have food in the house."

“Children don’t have a public voice so they can’t tell us.  We have a collective responsibility to make sure every child has enough to eat. This is something as a society we can solve if we want to and change children’s future for the better.”

Amy an older child who has, with help from Kids Company, grown up to a better life, recalls her childhood:

 "I would wake up starving in the night but there would be no more food. When I went to people's houses their parents would make as much food as possible for me and more for me to take home. At my best friend's house I would fill up on dog biscuits in-between meals. I would wait at my garden fence and ask passers-by for sweets or food. I would even chip bits of brick off the wall and eat those."

So how can you and I help?

It's as simple as digging out an old mobile phone. Orange and T-Mobile are accepting any of your old handsets at 720 stores around UK or you can send it by FREEPOST to their national recycling centre. 


Recycling a single mobile phone can provide a child with nutritious meals for a month.


All the information you need is on Netmums Mobiles for Meals page so please do pop over.

If you do not have an old mobile phone then write a post about Mobile for Meals, or share a link, RT a tweet - whatever you can to help spread the message and make this campaign count.