Leiths School of Food and Wine, set up by TV legend Prue Leith in 1975, has chosen to support City Harvest London, who redistribute fresh surplus food to organisations that feed the hungry. Leiths Managing Director Camilla Schneideman said: “We're delighted to announce that our charity of the year for 2017 is City Harvest London. This amazing organisation helps to feed those who need it most, while reducing the environmental impact of wasting food.”

Leiths School of Food and Wine will be donating the proceeds from its annual Canapé Party, on 17th March, to the charity. The event sees the School's professional students creating a menu of innovative canapés for approximately 200 paying customers. The proceeds from the evening will be combined with money raised throughout the year.

City Harvest CEO Laura Winningham said: “This is a fantastic honour and welcome recognition from one of the top cookery schools in the country. We're very proud of the high-quality nutritious food we deliver to homeless organisations and we welcome the support of Leiths in helping us achieve our aims.”

Each week, City Harvest delivers five tonnes of high quality, nourishing food to organisations that provide meals to vulnerable people including homeless shelters, soup kitchens, after school programs, centres for veterans, and organisations that assist people with alcohol or drug addictions.

Some of the 150 community organisations that receive City Harvest food deliveries include Acton Homeless Concern, Aston-Mansfield, The Upper Room, Glass Door Night Shelters, FoodCycle and British Red Cross Refugee Support.

By delivering free food, City Harvest frees up funds within these charities, which are reinvested in other vital support services like medical care and counselling.

The food it recycles is diverted from going to landfill where it would release gases toxic to the environment, and the service means that overall, less food needs to be grown, reducing the carbon footprint of London's food consumption. To date, City Harvest has recycled more than 240 tonnes of food.

City Harvest enables people to eat great food with dignity. Its vans are greeted with excitement and pride because people know that they contain high quality food from some of the best stores in London. The food served gives vulnerable people the strength they need to overcome hard times.

City Harvest is always looking for volunteers and donations. Supporters can get in touch via their website www.cityharvest.org.uk, by email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or on Facebook and Twitter.