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Written By GingersnapComments Off on PRWeek UK Awards Winners 2020: FeedNHS – Oct 28, 2020
Best Proactive Communications During the Coronavirus Crisis
by PRWeek UK Staff | PR Week | October 28, 2020
Nominated: Best Ethical or Good Cause Initiative During the Coronavirus Crisis Nominated and Won: Best Proactive Communications During the Coronavirus Crisis
Judge’s comment:
Brilliant campaign, well executed with passion.
And the winner is, FeedNHS! This campaign aimed to raise £1m to get hot, healthy meals to frontline NHS staff during the coronavirus crisis, as many struggled to get them amid lockdown closures. It was set up by Leon Restaurants co-founder and chief executive John Vincent, actors Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory, and actor and comedian Matt Lucas.
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Written By GingersnapComments Off on The Feel-Good Power List – May 16, 2020
People Making a Real Difference During the Corona Crisis
by Lucy Dunn | The Telegraph | May 16, 2020
Two months ago the world changed and the people we took notice of changed, too. A new gravity gripped the nation. Almost overnight headlines pronounced ‘the death of celebrity’. Pampered individuals living in bubbles with carefully crafted Instagram fantasies quickly felt off-key.
We suddenly wanted to witness great acts of altruism. We wanted to read about people rolling up their sleeves and pitching in. Ordinary people suddenly became the new stars – who knew that a 100-year-old veteran called Captain (now Colonel) Tom would become such a national treasure?
Conversely, some people in the public eye came in for criticism for reading the mood wrongly. Like singer Sam Smith, who posted a ‘quarantine meltdown’ picture crying on the steps of their £12 million mansion. (Smith later insisted the video had been a joke that backfired.) Or Victoria Beckham, whose fashion label sought £150,000 in taxpayer funds to place 30 staff on furlough. (Following a backlash about the Beckhams’ personal wealth, the brand later reversed its decision.) And like Aston Villa captain Jack Grealish, who was caught breaking lockdown rules 24 hours after imploring his 297,000 Twitter followers to ‘Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives’.
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Written By GingersnapComments Off on FeedNHS Expands Fundraising Efforts – May 16, 2020
Rolling Out the Nationwide Campaign
by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | May 16, 2020
FeedNHS is expanding its fundraising efforts from £1M to £2M. So far, £1,239,800 (*updated June 12) has been raised of the £2,000,000 target (61%). Just launched on March 27, it took the coalition only 10 days to raise the first £1M. And now they want to do it again in order to expand nationwide.
For more information, visit their FeedNHS website here and to donate, please visit the JustGiving campaign here. Here is a recent story Damian and Helen shared online:
“Hi, we’ve been raising as much money as we can to help feed NHS workers one healthy meal each day. We started in the hardest hit London hospitals and with the help of our coalition partners we’ve now taken it nationwide.
We had a target to raise 1 million pounds for our scheme and thanks to the public’s overwhelming generosity we’ve raised it. Thank you! But as more hospitals have heard about what we’re doing it’s become clear that we mustn’t stop. So our aim now is to raise 2 million (in total ) which will enable us to feed even more hospital workers across the nation. So if you can, and we know not everyone can, please donate. With you, we know we can make up the difference.
We’re Damian and Helen and like all the best things in life, this started with a chat to a friend.”
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Written By GingersnapComments Off on Telegraph Interview: Isolated in Suffolk Put to Good Use – April 24, 2020
Isolated in Suffolk, TV’s First Couple Have Created a Scheme to Supply the NHS with Thousands of Meals
by Guy Kelly | The Telegraph | April 24, 2020
Spare a thought for celebrities at the moment. Forced into lockdown like the rest of the civilian population, and with unreliable Wi-Fi at their fourth homes, many have been unable to maintain their expensive round-the-clock PR advice.
That’s the only excuse I can think of for some recent announcements, anyway. Left unattended by people whose job it is to say, “That isn’t… the best look”, we have had the likes of billionaire Sir Richard Branson attempting to solicit mass public sympathy (and money) to help his struggling business. So, too, Victoria Beckham, who, from her Cotswolds mansion, has furloughed 25 employees rather than, say, dip into her estimated £360m fortune. Even Idris Elba, fresh from Covid-19, has drawn ire for his suggestion the “world should quarantine for a week every year to remember this time.”…
Fortunately, though, not all celebrities are quite so errant when left to their own devices. The Telegraph spoke to some who are putting their spare time to good use, beginning with actors Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory.
The couple, who have been married for almost 13 years, were working apart when lockdown neared in March. Lewis, star of Homeland, was in New York, filming the fifth series of Sky’s Billions, when the TV business started shutting down, forcing him to return to England.
McCrory, who was last seen in ITV’s Quiz, meanwhile, was closer to home, filming the sixth series of Peaky Blinders. Together with co-star Cillian Murphy and producers, it was her decision to tell the BBC she was “not comfortable doing this anymore” and request they pause production.
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Written By GingersnapComments Off on Podcast Guests: Damian and Helen Discuss FeedNHS Efforts on The Coronavirus Newscast – April 9, 2020
The Coronavirus Newscast
by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | April 9, 2020
Every day, Adam Fleming, Laura Kuenssberg, Fergus Walsh and Chris Mason bring us the latest on the coronavirus pandemic in the UK via the The Coronavirus Newscast. They discuss the latest public health information and how it is affecting our lives. On Thursday, April 9, 2020 Damian and Helen were guests on the podcast to share with listeners about their #FeedNHS campaign and their efforts to feed frontline heroes, hospital staff.
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Written By GingersnapComments Off on Damian Lewis Leads Restaurant Campaign to Feed Health Workers – April 9, 2020
Coronavirus Appeal With Leon Restaurants Will Supply 6,000 Meals a Day
by Richard Vines | Bloomberg | April 9, 2020
The actor Damian Lewis initiated a campaign with the Leon healthy fast-food group to raise £1 million ($1.2 million) to feed National Health Service workers partly to overcome a feeling of helplessness he felt under lockdown.
The FeedNHS campaign, in alliance with Leon co-founder and chief executive John Vincent, is currently serving about 5,200 meals a day to critical-care workers at London hospitals and aims to reach its initial goal of 6,000 daily meals sometime next week. The campaign has support from restaurant groups including Wasabi, Tortilla, Peach Pubs, Rosa’s Thai, Hop, Pizza Pilgrims, Franco Manca, Farmer J, Tossed, Haché, Abokado, Dishoom and Nusa Kitchen.
“Helen (McCrory), my wife, and I have friends who are in quite senior positions in the NHS and the clarion call kept coming from everybody that it was difficult to get fed during the day and do you have any influence?” said Lewis, whose awards include an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his performance as Nicholas Brody in the TV series “Homeland.” Most recently he’s starred as a hedge fund manager in “Billions.”
Lewis and McCrory, who appeared in the Harry Potter movies and “Peaky Blinders,” are in touch with Vincent daily after reaching out via a mutual connection. The aim is simple, Lewis says:
“When you have done four hours straight, working ventilators in PPE (personal protective equipment) gear, you can walk out and someone will hand you a hot, healthy meal,” he said. “We all want to do something that can help. Staying at home is an odd feeling, like being under house arrest, feels cowardly, oddly, even though it is the most important thing you can do.”
Lewis said he’s been experiencing a range of emotions during the coronavirus lockdown in a telephone interview from his home in Suffolk, in the east of England:
