Those without enough food to eat need our help more than ever

How do we measure our own problems against those of other people? How much are we willing to do about the latter when at times the former feels all-consuming?

Those questions have stubbornly occupied my mind for most of my life. I remember my dad talking to me about how to feel about other people’s suffering: I felt sad if I cut my finger, but how did I feel if someone I loved broke a leg? If a distant aunt or uncle died, how did I feel relative to hearing about five people dying in an accident on the news? Ten thousand in a different country? Twenty million in a war many decades ago?

I think about those questions now because hardship caused by this pandemic is all around us. Around the world we are seeing its brutal effects on lives and livelihoods. Quite aside from the health impact of the crisis, the WHO estimates that 265 million people around the world will be in a hunger crisis. A rise of 130 million on the pre-pandemic figure.

While it pales in comparison, Hawksmoor, the company my best friend and I have spent most of our adult lives building alongside many people who we have come to think of like a family, is also suffering. The industry that we love and the 3.2 million people that it employed pre-Covid are suffering even more.

Hawksmoor’s problems are no different to any in hospitality – 106 days of mandated closure, accrued rent liabilities and some intransigent landlords, social distancing, eerily quiet city centres. Our turnover has dried up and our debts have increased.

However, we are lucky in many ways. Lucky to have restaurants where social distancing is relatively easy, to have been invited to consult with the government on the guidance over the last few months, and lucky to have the resources to ensure we go above and beyond that guidance in terms of making sure we are Covid-secure. And we are lucky to have a loyal following and talented staff who have stuck with us and are thrilled to be back at work.

Hospitality has received help – the furlough scheme, the VAT reduction and Eat Out to Help Out have all kept the patient alive and provided hope that a full recovery may be possible. However, whatever the government does (and more help is needed), some restaurants and pubs have closed forever and thousands of jobs have been lost. Many more will follow.

So much will change post-Covid, but at Hawksmoor we spend a lot of time talking about what cannot change. We are doing what we can to make the experience of eating in our restaurants as normal as possible, the experience of working in them as fulfilling as we hope it always has been.

We don’t want to go down the route of discounting after Eat Out to Help Out. We want to be able to run our restaurants with confidence that the 14 years we have spent endlessly obsessing about our food, our restaurants and about the people who work in them mean that we can open our doors every day and feel proud that we’re doing things properly. That if we put everything into standards and service, if we continue to work closely with our amazing farmers, fishermen, wine makers, brewers and other suppliers, that Hawksmoor will work on its own terms.

We also know we can’t let our commitment to trying to help other people slip. During lockdown we started a new charitable initiative, Today’s Special, and through various means tried to support charities like Action Against Hunger, Magic Breakfast, City Harvest and many more.

In September and throughout October, like many restaurants, we will be focusing on Action Against Hunger’s Love Food Give Food campaign – a simple idea that adds £1 to each bill to raise money for people with little access to medical care, nutritious food or clean water; communities affected by conflict and hunger like Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen; and the people of Lebanon, where Huw Gott and I travelled two years ago to see Action Against Hunger’s incredible work, and where the devastating recent blast has exacerbated the existing humanitarian crisis.

For over 20 years, Action Against Hunger has united the UK restaurant industry to turn people’s love for food into helping people without enough to eat and raise over £11m to support vulnerable communities. This year, with the need being greater than ever before, the UK food industry is joining forces with the hospitality industry to take part in this campaign.

If you have any strength left after struggling with your own problems or the problems of those nearest to you, we hope you’ll join us, either by adding a £1 donation to your bill at participating restaurants or visiting and giving what you can.

Will Beckett, co-founder of Hawksmoor restaurant chain, is championing Action Against Hunger’s Love Food Give Food campaign