A London shopkeeper and National Lottery retailer who won £5,000 in National Lottery operator, Allwyn’s, Local Retail Champions awards is helping hundreds of local families in Southwark access quality fresh food after re-investing his prize money into the community kitchen he founded.

Vimal Pandya, who helps run the family-owned Halai General Stores, Best-one in Southwark, was one of 16 regional winners in Allwyn’s 2024 Local Retail Champions awards. The awards recognised National Lottery retailers who go above and beyond for their local communities.  

Vimal and his store were nominated for the award by customers for supporting over 70 vulnerable families free of charge during the Covid-19 pandemic, and for running the community kitchen and cooking hundreds of meals every Sunday for local families.

Now he has taken his support for his local community even further.  

The £5,000 prize money from Allwyn is enabling Vimal to open his community kitchen – the Rotherhithe Community Kitchen which he founded in November 2023 – three days a week instead of one. He’s also opened two new food bank sites in the local area to reach more families. The prize money helped finance two new fridge freezers, van rental three days a week to courier food from National Lottery-funded food distribution charity, The Felix Project, to the new sites and deliver to vulnerable people in the local area, as well as supplies and other equipment for the service.  

Along with more than 70 committed volunteers, Vimal provides food for more than 300 families in the local area every week from the three sites in Rotherhithe. He also works with 20 other charitable organisations, like community organisation Time and Talents which has received National Lottery funding, to support a further 300 families with fresh quality food. He and his team of volunteers also start cooking 350 fresh hot meals at 6.30am every Sunday at a local school to provide them to families in the area.

Allwyn’s connection with the project goes beyond recognising Vimal for his work and providing the prize money which has helped him grow his community kitchen further. Allwyn Retail Sales Executive, Lorena Ospina Arias, regularly volunteers at the kitchen, giving her own time to help Vimal with his vital community work.

Vimal said: “As a proud Local Retail Champion, I’m hugely grateful to Allwyn for recognising and rewarding retailers like me for our work in our communities. Thanks to the prize money, we’ve been able to open two new sites and serve even more of the local community with food across three days of the week. This comes at a time when the cost of living is high and people are really struggling.  

“I’m really proud of the work we’re doing and we’re reaching even more people now. But none of it would be possible without the hard work of our dedicated volunteers. Everything we do is completely free for those we support, and none of us are paid. We do it simply out of love for our community and a wish to make a positive difference.”

Allwyn’s Head of Field Sales, Karl Southworth, said: “Our Local Retail Champions are pillars of their communities. Vimal is showing exactly why he was selected as one of Allwyn's regional winners by using his prize money to help his local community even more than he already has been. It’s heart-warming to hear of the work he and his dedicated volunteers, including Allwyn sales rep Lorena, are doing.  They make a difference to the lives of so many people in his local community by providing them with fresh quality food. It’s clear he’s passionate about his work and we’re so grateful to him for continuing to make his community a better place.”

The Local Retail Champions initiative is paid for with money from Allwyn’s dedicated Social Value Fund, which is an annual £1 million that the company has committed to use to support operating The National Lottery in an environmentally and socially responsible way. Last year, Allwyn used a portion of the fund to reward and recognise the important role its retail partners play in every community across the UK and Isle of Man – and arrangements for this year’s programme will become available over the coming months. 

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