The #EndSARS protests were revealing in a lot of ways. A morally righteous request for an end to police brutality was met with even more brutality by the state. The Nigerian government does not care about its people.

Maybe we were naive to expect more from the people in power, but given the nature of public service, you’d think serving the people was actually important to these guys.

Perhaps not.

With no defined leaders, the protests got more structured organically with each additional day. From a request for refreshments to volunteer legal aid and ambulances, we looked after each other in a way the government has refused to.

In those twelve days, the neglect suffered by the individuals at the bottom of the pyramid was never more glaring. It’s one thing to know you’re the “poverty capital” of the world from an air-conditioned living room, it’s another thing to actually see why we are.

The President’s subtle threat to “end” the protests if we went back on the streets left a bunch of us feeling disillusioned and wondering what to do next. But this is not the time to give up or lose hope. The change we want is going to be slow and painful.

We all have a role to play in this fight. It is important we don’t lose that feeling of “community” that brought us together in those twelve days.

With this in mind, we want to formally introduce Project F.E.E.D: Lagos, a network of decentralised soup kitchens in Lagos.

Well, that’s the goal.

We’ll be starting out in our local community, Lekki, and the hope is that there’ll be volunteers who want to set up something similar in their own neighbourhoods.

Like the #EndSARS protests, this is not a political movement. Food inflation has quietly crept up and with the border closures, as well as the all-round mismanagement of the Nigerian economy, things are not looking up any time soon.

If you've been paying attention, the full brunt of state neglect is felt by individuals at the bottom of the pyramid. With no institutional safety net, many are falling through the cracks and no one is coming to help.

Our intention is to create a series of soup kitchens capable of feeding up to 1000 people daily. This is an ambitious but necessary goal. We also hope to use vendors from the local communities in order to empower and provide employment.

Who We Are

• Chef Imoteda

• Toni Aladekomo

• Chike Akah

• Vanessa Uduma

• Sukanmi Adigun

• Wale Adigun

• Ramon Shitta

• Eat.Drink.Lagos

• …and a couple other people who aren’t quite sure if they don’t want be anon.

Follow Us

Follow on Twitter @feedlagos

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Check out our website - www.feedlagos.com

Donate

To fund our next 4 food drives, we need to raise N2,400,000. We hope that you will consider donating to support us.