Leon Aarts on Founding Compassion London & The Scale of Food Surplus

https://youtube.com/shorts/xWWnuA3Iq4w

In this video clip, Leon Aarts (Co-Founder of Ample Innovation) reflects on his career in the food and hospitality sector and explains how founding Compassion London during the COVID-19 pandemic opened his eyes to the vast scale of edible food surplus in the UK.

Key Takeaways & Visual Highlights Industry

Background: Having spent his entire career in food and hospitality, Leon saw firsthand the disconnect between food availability and hunger.

Founding Compassion London: Launched just ahead of the COVID-19 lockdown to support communities facing severe food insecurity.

Thousands of Daily Meals: Using intercepted surplus produce, volunteer teams prepared thousands of fresh, hot meals every single day for vulnerable groups and frontline NHS healthcare workers.

Eye-Opening Scale: The sheer volume of high-quality surplus food rescued daily demonstrated the urgent need for a permanent, system-wide solution.