My work is about helping the marginalised across our city

Dr Sanjay Mall

I grew up in the Midlands and moved to Southampton 29 years ago when I took a research fellow position in Biochemistry at Southampton University. I have a degree in Chemistry, a masters in Bio-Colloid Chemistry and a PhD in Biochemical Engineering. Following my post-doctoral research, I ran my own property business.

I have volunteered and run The Big Breakfast for the last 18 years. Providing free breakfasts every Thursday morning for 50 weeks a year from Above Bar Church, the aim is to support the vulnerable and homeless in the city.

I set up The Big Difference (TBD) at the beginning of Covid and have run this for five years and it continues to grow at a phenomenal rate, reaching thousands of individuals and families. TBD is now in its second year as a standalone charity.

The need for charities like this is huge, as it really tackles food insecurity using a knowledge-based system to identify families and people in need, as well as addressing  the problem of food going into landfill. As we continue to expand, more people are beginning to know about the joy we bring to communities and the help we give to people. The city council, NHS and other large organisations are now referring their clients to us, too, so awareness is growing. 

I have always cared about people who suffer and the imbalance of poverty in the UK. We don’t need to live like this, as the planet has plenty of resources and there are many good people who care about the poor. I want to make Southampton the first city that can meet the needs of the poor using its own food waste and help everyone that needs help.

As the cost-of-living crisis worsens, utilities carry on going up, benefits decrease and the cost of food has not come down after inflation went up five-fold, the situation for poor people is horrific. Parents are having to feed their children and go without food themselves. Inflation has come back down, yet costs remain high and show no signs of reducing.

At TBD we’ve built up a network of food donors over the years and now work with more than sixty organisations that help with food insecurity. We have three vans that go around collecting food and bringing it back to our hub for sorting and redistribution. We are a very small core team and have about thirty volunteers.

On 4^th May we’re celebrating our one-year anniversary with an event to help raise awareness about the work we do. We are looking to have 240 guests for an evening at the Concorde Club, with Malc Eyres and his fabulous band playing. This will be a fun night out to help raise money for the infrastructure of this charity as it grows and spread the word about our work. It’s the first event of its kind that we’ve organised and we are hoping to have a huge impact. Tickets are still available.

It was lovely to be nominated as a Community Legend in the recent City Reflections project, highlighting some of the work I have done over the last 18 years, and I am amazed at how many legends there are helping around our great city. People are remarkable in what they give and what they do.

These awards are good and do help raise awareness, but networking with the right people who have influence can make all the difference. The solutions are out there and sometimes we must push ourselves outside our comfort zones to make things happen.

One of my dreams is to have a conversation with King Charles about the work we do, as he worked all this out about 40 years ago. The King can and would make this happen. I am hoping that I will get to speak to him, as my team and I have been nominated for The King’s Award for Voluntary Services.

We are working on many projects across the city and looking at all the areas of food deprivation in Southampton, and over the next few months we hope to create sites where they are needed to help those struggling communities.

Southampton is one of the best cities, where people show initiative and try and help the marginalised. I hope to see The Big Difference make massive difference in the years to come. The people in our city can help with making this a totally sustainable project if they are able to invest their time and money.

For more information visit thebigdifference.org.uk or email me direct: sanjay@thebigdifference.org.uk.