A Bermondsey woman, who opened her loo to queuers following the Queen’s death, has created a food bank in a garden area outside her house to give free food to people who need it.
Henrietta Onyema, 63, started the pop-up food bank in the garden area outside her home after the one at her nearby church St Peter & the Guardian Angels had to stop.
“My church used to do it,” she explained, “but we have recently lost many members due to parking costs. So it stopped.”
She told us she buys the food herself and lays it out on Saturday and Sunday afternoons outside her house on Bermondsey Wall East, near the newly refurbished Old Justice pub.
“There are lots of people struggling right now,” she said.
“Things are hard. I don’t ask any questions – anyone can come and take whatever they like.”
She added that she would like some help setting up a food bank. “If anyone wants to help me set one up, I would be grateful.”
As Bermondsey’s answer to the phrase ‘charity starts at home,’ this is not the first time she has been spotted doing good.
When the Queen died last September, Henrietta opened her toilet for thousands of people queuing to pay their respects to the monarch.
“You can only do what you can,” she said.
