Five charities that support, educate, and provide skills development in communities across London have received donations totalling £12,000 from the team at Amazon’s head office in Shoreditch.

The Felix Project, Foodcycle, Glass Door Homeless Charity, Rackets Cubed and Roots and Shoots each received donations from Amazon after nominations of support from Amazon employees.

The Felix Project is London’s largest food redistribution charity, fighting hunger and the impact of food waste, aiming to support the reduction of carbon emissions. Amazon has an ongoing partnership with The Felix Project and has donated millions of meals to the charity from its Amazon Fresh stores as well as providing support from Amazon Logistics to collect and deliver surplus food to community organisations across the Capital. The additional cash donation will help the charity deliver even more meals to people in need.

Foodcycle is a charity that aims to eradicate food poverty, loneliness and food waste by connecting communities and working with thousands of volunteers to distribute surplus food to anyone who needs it. It offers free meals, cooked with surplus ingredients, as well as a weekly telephone check-in and chat for the people it supports.

Glass Door coordinates the UK’s largest network of open-access services for people affected by homelessness. The charity offers advice and practical support year-round to help people end their homelessness through trained caseworkers at partnering drop-in centres. The charity also provides emergency accommodation during the winter.

Rackets Cubed delivers integrated STEM education, racket sports and nutrition programmes to children from underserved areas. The charity aims to give children from inner city areas the opportunity to improve their physical and mental health and reach their full academic potential. Each weekly session includes one hour of racket sports coaching, one hour of STEM education and a nutritious meal.

Roots and Shoots is an educational and environmental charity that offers accessible and positive vocational and educational opportunities for young people with an Education, Health and Care Plan. This training empowers young people to develop news skills and build confidence, as well as gaining employment experience. The charity also has a variety of environmental projects that provide a biodiverse habitat for urban wildlife and access to green spaces for local people, as well as collaborations with local community groups and charitable organisations, offering advice, support and meeting spaces.

Samuel Bryan, who works at Amazon as a Central Sales Executive, nominated Roots and Shoots to receive a donation after volunteering with some colleagues.

“We are proud to support Roots and Shoots. It is important to empower young individuals with new skills to gain employment experience. Roots and Shoots works daily to successfully deliver its mission in a safe and inspiring, nature-filled environment. During our time volunteering, we were taken aback by the welcome we received from staff, impressed by the impact the charity has on young lives, and in awe of the wild garden that they have worked so hard to create. We hope that this donation helps the Roots and Shoots team continue to deliver its mission to ensure the safety and development of more young Londoners today, and in the future.”

Linda Phillips MBE, Director at Roots and Shoots, added:

“We are touched to have received this donation from the enthusiastic Amazon employees who volunteered with us. Thank you for the nomination Samuel! We rely on corporate volunteers to support the maintenance of our beautiful biodiverse site, and kind donations like these go directly to supporting our fundraising projects that improve educational facilities for young Londoners and the community.”

These donations form part of Amazon’s Volunteer Cash Donation Programme, where Amazon employees nominate local causes where they volunteer their time, to receive a cash donation from the company. Throughout September, Amazon employees are getting together for Amazon’s Global Month of Volunteering, an initiative that aims to help the communities where they live and work. In collaboration with hundreds of community organisations around the world, Amazon employees will participate and lead in-person and virtual volunteering opportunities to support causes they’re passionate about.

“Throughout September, we will come together to help some incredible organisations who are making a real difference in the areas where our employees live and work,” said John Boumphrey, Amazon UK Country Manager. “It’s fantastic to see our employees sharing their ideas and tapping into their passions to give back to our local communities.”

Community donations and employee volunteering are just two of the ways Amazon supports the communities in and around its operating locations across the UK. Amazon provides students, teachers and parents with free computer science and STEM education programmes through Amazon Future Engineer and has teamed up with charity partner Magic Breakfast to deliver more than seven million healthy breakfasts to children at risk of hunger in disadvantaged areas of the country. Earlier this year, Amazon partnered with Comic Relief to become the official home of the Red Nose. Amazon employees across the UK hosted fundraising activities and together with their customers and partners, raised £2.7 million to support those going through the toughest time of their lives.