Join us for our Open Evening at Leiths on Thursday 5th February 2026, 6:30–8:30pm, and discover how the Culinary Diploma can launch your career in food.
Join us for our Open Evening at Leiths on Thursday 5th February 2026, 6:30–8:30pm, and discover how the Culinary Diploma can launch your career in food.
As Leiths puts out its wreath for the Christmas holidays, some of our Diploma cohort will also be swapping chef’s caps for Santa hats and heading down to cook at Refettorio Felix.
The community kitchen and drop-in centre for vulnerable people is a collaboration between Massimo Bottura’s Food for Soul and surplus food distributor The Felix Project. Based in Earl’s Court, it serves a hot three course meal to over 130 vulnerable people five days a week. And Christmas dinner, which will be a two-day undertaking in early December, is no exception.
A guest at last year’s lunch describes it as ‘three courses of delicious traditional Christmas lunch, beautifully presented, served by kind and polite volunteers. The staff elaborately decorated the hall and all the tables and took care of our safety and comfort whilst enjoying the food and drinks. There was live entertainment, singing and dancing as well, which was fantastic. The whole experience for me was magical and I felt blessed to be there. It is great to be offered this opportunity and be treated kindly with no judgement.’
Alex Jensen, a support worker at the charity, enthuses to me over the phone that the Christmas parties ‘feel like a day of celebration which is an amazing thing for a charity to have.’
‘Even though we are a place that’s helping marginalised and vulnerable people, on those [Christmas party] days it feels different.’
Behind the scenes, the permanent team is pulling together all their resources to ensure a spectacular Christmas party.
Grace McEvedy, Events & Marketing Officer, stresses that Christmas ‘is such an undertaking, it’s part of my job to get as much stuff as possible donated so I’ve been emailing turkey farms.’
There is so much more to say about all the transformative work that goes on under one roof. But let me urge you to volunteer, donate food (such as dried fruit for Christmas puddings) or just spread the word. A world with more places like Refettorio Felix would be a better one and a December with more people sitting down for Christmas lunch is surely what the season of giving is all about.