Robert Hunningher has a plan to make sure nobody in London goes hungry.
In 2020 the chef and father of two launched a soup kitchen through his catering business Humdingers, and they’ve since provided more than 250,000 free meals to people experiencing hardship.
It all began on a cold February night; Humdingers’ chefs cooked up soup with the leftovers and two volunteers (East End ladies with big voices) stood outside and shouted: ‘Free Soup.’
“It was louder than church bells!” recalls Robert. “Pretty soon everybody found out about it. We served around 60 people soup and bread that first night and, as time went on, we started doing some different dishes.
“When we had to furlough the staff through lockdown, we stayed and cooked. That’s when we started opening the soup kitchen four days a week; the numbers went up quite drastically then. When lockdown happened, people didn’t have any food. They were wandering the streets. Churches and everything had shut. We just opened our doors and were loud.
“I just remember the queues. From 5pm till 7pm it was pretty much non-stop.”
Humdingers was also providing free meals through lockdown for people at the Royal London Hospital. The team sourced food that was coming close to its use-by date and used their catering contacts to buy in bulk. And Robert put his own savings into ensuring no one went hungry.
Asked where his compassion stems from, Robert replied: “My mum! I grew up in Highbury where I was very privileged – but I had friends who went to bed hungry. Me and another friend used to sneak food out to them.”
The Humdingers Soup Kitchen is still open four nights; providing around 1,000 free meals a week. Today, much of the cost is funded by profit from Humdingers’ catering business and bakeries. But their plans are bigger. Robert would like to have kiosks throughout London, offering pop-up soup kitchens where the need is greatest.
He said: “We have bakeries in Hoxton, Haringey and Roseberry Avenue and we offer free soup at them all. If we could have these bakeries throughout London, we could make sure nobody goes hungry – it’s not a dream; it’s a plan.”
He puts the company’s success and community impact down to the talented Humdingers staff and the volunteers who run the soup kitchen.
Robert, who lives in Dalston, trained as a chef and worked in London’s top restaurants, including L’Escargot and the River Café. He left to launch his own business, a cake stall in Stoke Newington and quickly moved to a larger kitchen, offering a sandwich and salad delivery service for the local NHS walk-in centres.
Today Humdingers Catering is a thriving catering company, catering for weddings, events, location shoots, fashion houses, and studios for the likes of Microsoft, Gucci and Chanel.
