From an 11-year old who sold all his toys to start his own food bank to a chef who walks the streets of London feeding the homeless, here our some of our Big Issue changemakers
Good morning. Welcome back to Survival Guide. Isabella here.
Every year at the Big Issue, we celebrate people and organisations who are changing the world for the better. Our Changemakers are a selfless and remarkable group who are making a real difference in their communities.
We asked you, our Big Issue readers, to nominate people and groups who are making life better. And from an enormous list of nominations, we have selected 100 Changemakers to recognise in 2025.
From an 11-year-old boy who sold his toys to start a food bank to a chef who walks the streets of London feeding the homeless, these people are some of the very best of us.
The last few years have been tough. The cost of living crisis has hit all corners of society. But there is a huge amount of hope to be found in the wonderful people who have gone above and beyond to make sure that the most vulnerable are getting the help they need.
In this newsletter, we wanted to spotlight a few of the groups who have supported people through the cost of living crisis. They realised that government interventions weren’t enough, so they stepped up to show their support.
Enjoy reading about these Changemakers. They are an incredible group and a reminder that hope and help is always out there.
I’m taking a couple of weeks of annual leave, so this newsletter will be taking a short break. In the meantime, let me know what you think about it and how we could make it better and more useful for you. If you’ve got a story to share, we want to listen. Get in touch at isabella.mcrae@bigissue.com or share your story here.
Travis Robinson, Big Trav's Foodbank
Travis Robinson is our youngest Changemaker. The 11-year-old sold all of his toys so he could start ‘Big Trav’s Foodbank’. Travis was inspired to take action when he had a conversation with a homeless man living with food insecurity. Within weeks the young activist had made hundreds of donations across Bradford, and went on to help around 200 people a month. He was nominated by the magician Steven Frayne, formerly known as Dynamo.
Feeding Communities
I had the absolute pleasure of joining Feeding Communities as they delivered hot, freshly cooked food to people experiencing homelessness on the streets. Led by professional chef Dean Collins and director Raj Singh, they head out distributing veggie curries, lasagnas and rice puddings with homemade jams that are so delicious and hearty they’ve even put a smile “on the face of a Tottenham fan facing defeat by Arsenal”.
“Our mantra is just turn up,” Raj told me. “Even if we can help one person, that’s something, but of course it’s never just one person.”
The project was set up during the pandemic and has since provided tens of thousands of freshly-prepared meals and food parcels to vulnerable people across the UK, as part of the Thomas Franks Foundation.
It started as a food bank but has grown into an “everything bank”. After fundraising £60,000, Maya Amangeldiyeva set up a 'free shop' in Herne Bay, Kent for those in need. They collect over 140 slots of supermarket surplus each week, and in the last 12 months we supplied 218,890 free meals, 30% of which were for kids. The food banks operate 365 days a year, and there are 200 volunteers.
“Kind people get involved because they believe in what we do and want to help, they see the impact of what we do on the ground daily,” says Andrew Robertson, director at Maya’s. “It’s rewarding and infectious, the more you help the more you see the need and gratitude from people and the more you then want to give.”
The Margins Project, the Union Chapel
Here’s another project that I’ve visited and written about – the incredible Margins Project at the Union Chapel. Twice a week, volunteers at the iconic venue in North London provide hot meals for 60 to 80 people. Showers, laundry, food parcels, access to a hardship fund and employment advisory services are all freely available.
When I went along to the Margins Project, more than 50 people had turned up before 12pm.
“Quite a lot of people here are homeless,” Amanuel Woldesus, who runs the Margins Project, told me. “Some are in really precarious housing situations. A lot of people have mental health conditions.
“A lot are disabled. Others are experiencing gender discrimination and sexual discrimination. These are all areas we need expertise on. I wish that there could be a mental health worker here or nurses here. I’m sure you will have found people with some bruises here today.”
Other Big Issue Changemakers making a difference in the cost of living crisis include the grassroots group Food & Solidarity, which I wrote about here, and the school Astrea Academy Woodfields, which runs daily breakfast clubs and a family dining scheme (which you can read about here).
To read about all of our amazing Big Issue Changemakers, check out the list.
In case you missed it
'We're overdue an update:' A four-day working week will be 'the norm' in five years, most Brits say. Could we be getting closer to a four-day working week? The majority of Brits seem to think so. Get the latest.
Labour must invest in the benefits system to lift children out of poverty, report finds. Scotland's benefits system is providing greater protections for children, and that means child poverty levels there are projected to fall. Read more.
Disability benefits such as PIP are actually good for the economy, economists say. Welfare has a positive impact on people’s wellbeing and that outweighs the cost of administering benefits, according to new research. Find out more.
'It's deeply upsetting': 80 homeless children have died in temporary accommodation in just one year. Record numbers of children living in temporary accommodation is translating into rising number of deaths. Here’s the story.
January is one of the hardest months for debt – but it's never too late to seek help. Debt charity StepChange is hopeful that 2025 brings some much-needed respite for people dealing with financial stresses. Read more.
DWP told to justify freezing housing benefit amid surging homelessness and skyrocketing rents. Labour decision means housing benefit won’t keep up with surging rents, leaving low-income households locked out of private renting. Get the story.
