Soup Kitchen: Homeless Christmas Dinners, 1

‘Homeless Christmas Dinners’ is an emotive photography series featuring 10 beautiful but solemn and harrowing still-life photos which reflect the make-shift meals homeless people eat at Christmas time. The photography serves as a marked reminder that the sumptuous Christmas dinners advertised aren’t a reality for the hundreds of thousands of homeless people in the UK. The imagery has been captured to raise awareness and donations for the Soup Kitchen, a London-based charity dedicated to supporting people in need. All of the meals are based on real-life experiences, garnered from conversations with regulars at Soup Kitchen London. Meals that have been photographed include Kamag (42), who had a Christmas dinner consisting of ketchup pasta that was cooked in a hostel from long-life food donations. Paul (56), spent Christmas Day lying in hospital with a punctured lung, due to street violence, and could only eat ice cream. Wassa, (56) had a tin of baked beans that he ate cold with a supermarket wooden fork. The campaign was created by Tad Buxton and India Penny of Wonderhood Studios and shot by food photographer Lizzie Mayson. It launches in the lead-up to the Soup Kitchen’s annual Christmas meal event taking place on Saturday 16th December. At the event, meals are provided for over 300 vulnerable people in London, along with presents and entertainment. This will be the closest many people come to having a proper Christmas dinner. A donation of just £5 will give one person a seat at the table. The photo series is hosted online at homelesschristmasdinners.com and calls on visitors to buy someone in need a proper meal this Christmas by donating a dinner for £5. Three hero shots are launching as press ads this week, featuring in the Guardian food supplement ‘Feast’, YOU magazine, and The Telegraph.