A Barnet businesswoman has teamed up with a chef who worked in the Calais refugee camps to send thousands of meals a day to NHS staff and vulnerable people.

Abigail Simon, who lives in Woodside Park, runs The Yum Yum Food Company – a catering firm that supplies meals to nursery schools – with business partner Annabel Karmel.

But when work dried up after the coronavirus outbreak, the mum-of-two decided to put her 2,000 sq ft commercial kitchens near Staples Corner to good use.

So she advertised the kitchens on Facebook, and someone put her in touch with chef and entrepreneur Leon Aarts, who helped open a kitchen supplying thousands of people in the refugee camps in Calais.

Together, they set up Compassion London, which is now sending out thousands of meals a day to NHS staff, homeless people and other vulnerable members of the community.

Ms Simon said: “After they closed the nurseries, business dried up. I was just sat in an empty kitchen.

“Then I decided to put it on Facebook – I have 2,000 sq ft kitchens, who wants them?

“I was put in touch with a guy called Leon Aarts, who had set up a kitchen in a refugee camp in Calais.

“He showed up, we had a quick chat, and soon there were eight volunteer chefs in the kitchen. We just hit the ground running.”

The kitchens are now making and delivering up to 3,000 meals every day, including dishes such as salmon and asparagus salad, chilli con carne, beef and ginger and garlic chicken.

They have been sent to Northwick Park Hospital, Barnet Hospital, Watford General, the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, St Thomas’ Hospital and others.

“When you think about what the NHS workers are going through, we feel like this is the least we can do,” Ms Simon said.

As well as NHS workers, Compassion London is reaching people who are self-isolating and finding it hard to get support during the coronavirus lockdown.

Ms Simon said: “We’ve been working with Westminster Council, which has taken homeless people into hostels, but they don’t necessarily have microwaves or a kitchen.

“We’ve also formed connections with people on Facebook – social workers and so on – who have said how worried they are.

“We’ve had a number of them who’ve chosen to call vulnerable people, and they have said ‘please give them my number’. We have phoned them directly and delivered meals to them.

“One woman I spoke to on Friday night, I said ‘we are going to deliver food for you tomorrow, what would you like?’

“She said, ‘I haven’t eaten for two days, I will eat anything’.

“I said, ‘I’m going to run round with something’, and she said, ‘I’d like two tea bags and some milk’. I obviously took her a lot more – I pretty much emptied my kitchen.

“We’ve been delivering her meals every day. We have got so many stories like that. There are a lot of people in terrible situations.”

Compassion London is looking for people to help out by donating, volunteering and spreading the word about how it can help people.

“The response we have had has been overwhelming, and the atmosphere is amazing,” Ms Simon said. “People come out feeling inspired.

“I’m dedicated to reaching as many people as we can for as long as we can.”

To find out more on how to get involved, you can visit the Compassion London website here.