THE DIFFERENCE MAKERS

Introducing the people behind Marylebone’s vital charities and community organisations: Siobhan Lanigan, CEO of The Food Chain charity

Interview: Jean-Paul Aubin-Parvu Portraits: Orlando Gili I’ve been involved with voluntary sector organisations all my working life. I started in a support and training role in the Spitalfields area, helping local people to access employment in the City and the then-developing Canary Wharf. A few years later, I became head of fundraising at London Lighthouse, a centre for people living with HIV and AIDS. It was the 1980s, at the beginning of the HIV pandemic, when we still didn’t really know quite what we were dealing with.

After working for lots of different voluntary sector organisations over the years, I returned to the HIV sector in 2013 as chief executive of The Food Chain. It felt like I’d completed a circle: a return to the sector where I’d had the most meaningful impact, supporting people with a condition that is close to my heart. I’ve known so many people who are living with HIV and many who died as a result of it.

The Food Chain provides access to food, nutrition support and nutrition education for people living with HIV in London at a time of crisis in their lives. Most people living with HIV can lead a long and healthy life, but for the people we support that’s not the case. They have fallen through the net in terms of living well. By the time they get referred to us, our service users don’t really have access to food, they’re hungry and have empty cupboards at home – if they’ve got a home. We step in at that point of crisis to help get them back on their feet, put them in touch with other support services and give them

Siobhan Lanigan, CEO of The Food Chain (right) and service user Peter Bodnar

“People who have been very isolated are suddenly sitting around a table making connections with others in a similar situation.”

Siobhan Lanigan

the skills and confidence they need to get better and stay better.

Following a conversation with one of our two specialist HIV dieticians, each service user gets a personalised nutrition care plan, taking into account their medical needs, cultural needs and home setting. We assess their situation and work out how we can best get food to them. That often means delivering groceries. We can usually do up to three deliveries over a period of a few weeks, providing them with storecupboard items that are going to last them a while, along with fresh food – anything that will help them have a well-balanced diet. We also offer a meal delivery service to those who are unable to prepare food for themselves, and we run nutrition and cookery classes that our service users can attend to help develop their knowledge and skills.

Eating together is another key service. For three months, our service users are invited to our kitchen in King’s Cross twice a week for a freshly prepared meal served to them by our fabulous volunteers. Bringing people together over food is such a socially bonding experience. People who have been very isolated are suddenly sitting around a table making connections with others in a similar situation. It’s as much about the social contact as it is about the nutrition.

That was obviously the service most affected by the Covid pandemic. We had to close the kitchen during the first lockdown, then reopened during last summer only to have to close it down again in December. Somebody living with HIV has a compromised immune system which makes them vulnerable to severe illness, so we had to hold back on reopening that service.

We have people who’ve been more or less isolating in their homes for almost two years. Because we couldn’t invite them in for meals, we started doing telephone calls just to keep the contact going and prevent them from feeling completely isolated. More recently, we’ve had people go and meet them for a cup of tea outdoors near to where they live, so that they don’t have to travel too far. It has been a really tough time for the people we support, and still is. Our whole operation is made possible by around 160 really active volunteers who support the work of our small staff team. Some have been involved for 20 years or more – longer than me.

We are very excited to have just moved to a lovely new kitchen and cafe, which is next door to our base in King’s

THE SERVICE USER’S STORY Peter Bodnar I was diagnosed with HIV back in 1994. Just after that diagnosis my T-cell count dropped below 200, which meant I had full-blown AIDS. My entire family disowned me and have never spoken to me since. I remember my sister telling me that I’d never see or hear from my nephews and nieces again – and she has kept her word. I’ve never had a Christmas or birthday card from my own family. That left me really isolated. It took me two decades to get out of that rut of depression.

My health really suffered. Medication back then wasn’t very good. It was very harsh, which meant that I lost a lot of weight and my muscles deteriorated. I was very gaunt. My weight was extremely low and I wasn’t really eating – I didn’t really have a diet. My medication kept chopping and changing, and the side effects had repercussions on my health.

I was in and out of part-time work. I was also living in very poor housing, which three years ago put me in hospital with pneumonia from the damp and mould. And that’s what brought me to The Food Chain. The hospital referred me because I weighed just over 50 kilos. I had to change my diet drastically. The Food Chain taught me how to prepare and cook healthy fresh food. For 20 years I had existed entirely on processed food. I didn’t Cross. Over time, it will become a community cafe that will be open to the public, which will help us to generate some income to support our charitable work. The reason that The Food Chain still exists after all these years, and why it remains so important, is that there are still many people living with HIV who for complex reasons don’t have the money to buy food for themselves or their families. And, of course, that has increased greatly over the last couple of years. The number of referrals is now more than double what it was prior to the pandemic, partly because the pandemic threw a lot of people who were just about managing into a crisis situation. I can plainly see the difference our work can make to somebody’s life. I have met people who haven’t eaten anything for several days because they’ve been giving all their food to their children. When you’re able to make an immediate difference, that same day, that’s what does it for me. And then, of course, everything goes from there. There’s that immediate meeting of the crisis moment and then there’s everything we can do for them thereafter. People’s lives change as a result of that support. That’s what gets me out of bed. There’s no greater reward than that. THE FOOD CHAIN Acorn House, 314-320 Gray’s Inn Road, WC1X 8DP foodchain.org.uk even have a cooker – I only had a microwave – but the charity very kindly gave me a pressure cooker, an electric ring hob and even some cooking utensils. They’re very generous. I also started coming to the twice-weekly communal meals. It’s not just a case of turn up, stuff your face and go. It’s not that kind of place. Before each meal there’s an educational talk on a different aspect related to nutrition. These meals also helped to improve my mental health, giving me the chance to mix with other service users. It made me happier. Today I can actually talk about my HIV – I’m not ashamed of it anymore – but for 20 years I wouldn’t talk to anyone because of the stigma. With no family to support me, I was basically on my own. My food regime has completely changed. I will not eat processed food at all now. I will only eat what I cook and I love cooking for myself. My body’s my temple these days. I have to look after it, because otherwise I’ll get back in the same old rut again, and I’m not doing that. I’ve been there, got the t-shirt. Where would I be without The Food Chain? I’d probably be dead. I had pneumonia and was very thin, so it was a case of either changing that and wanting to live or staying that way and exiting the world. I can’t really thank The Food Chain enough for what they’ve done for me. Siobhan and the whole team, they just give. They are the kindest people I’ve ever met.