King Charles has celebrated his 76th birthday by visiting a food charity project aiming to end food poverty.

Arriving at Deptford Trading Estate in south London on Thursday, the monarch appeared in good spirits as he opened the first Coronation Food Hub on-site and inaugurated a second in Knowsley, Merseyside, via video link.

Volunteers from the Felix Project, who will manage the Deptford hub, cheered and waved flags as the King stepped out of his Bentley. London mayor Sadiq Khan greeted him before schoolchildren from Peckham’s Rye Oak Primary School presented a homemade birthday card and sang “Happy Birthday.”

Taking time to sit with the children, who will benefit from the hub, Charles chatted with them about their favourite foods and school lunches. Asked if he’d be relaxing for his birthday, he replied jokingly, “Not quite.”

Members of the royal family meanwhile marked the King’s birthday with public tributes, with the Prince and Princess of Wales sharing a photograph of a relaxed Charles wearing in sunglasses and a garland from his recent tour of Samoa.

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The monarchy’s official social media accounts also sent its birthday wishes alongside a formal portrait of the King in the White Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace.

Charles, however, treated the day as business as usual, choosing to focus on royal duties amid a challenging year for the family, during which both he and the Princess of Wales faced cancer diagnoses.

His visit highlighted the first anniversary of the Coronation Food Project, an initiative launched on his birthday last year to address food insecurity and tackle waste amid rising costs of living.

Since its launch, the project has rescued an estimated 940 tonnes of surplus food—equivalent to over two million meals—and raised more than £15 million. These funds are earmarked to support the establishment of up to ten Coronation Food Hubs nationwide, part of a network designed to alleviate food poverty across the UK.

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The Coronation Food Project, launched by the King last year, aims to bridge the gap between food waste and food need across the UK by increasing surplus food rescue, strengthening distribution networks, and establishing a flexible funding programme for the wider sector.

According to a progress report, the initiative has made “significant and tangible progress” towards these goals, working with partner charities The Felix Project and FareShare.

The Felix Project – founded by Independent shareholder Justin Byam Shaw in memory of his son Felix, who passed away from meningitis at 14 – redistributes fresh surplus food from supermarkets and restaurants to charities tackling food poverty.

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Since its launch with just two distribution vans in 2016, it has become London’s largest food redistribution charity, supplying food for tens of millions of meals annually.

It was also named a beneficiary of The Independent‘s 2022 On The Breadline Christmas appeal, with funds pledged by the King helping to equip hundreds of food charities with refrigeration units across London.

In earlier efforts, The Independent and The Evening Standard partnered with The Felix Project for the Help the Hungry appeal, raising over £10 million to support the nation’s most vulnerable during the pandemic.

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