'Britain's kindest plumber' James Anderson spends £6,000 a week feeding families
James Anderson said the cost of living crisis has had a huge impact on his work
A man dubbed "Britain's kindest plumber", who went viral after offering his services for free, has set up his own food bank-style shop to help people amid the cost-of-living crisis.
James Anderson, 55, set up his company Depher – Disabled and Elderly, Plumbing and Heating Emergency Response – in 2017, initially carrying out free plumbing jobs when he noticed people were finding it hard to heat their homes.
But soon his remit expanded – first to providing free food and help to people in his local area of Burnley, and eventually to a nationwide food delivery service to tackle food and fuel poverty – and he estimates he's helped more than a million people.
Launching a new fundraiser for the summer – a time when thousands of families struggle to provide food for their children during the six-week school holiday, Anderson said he had paused giving out free food after the pandemic and was mainly providing free boilers, funeral care and education services.
But he then realised there was still a need when customers told him they didn't have enough food.
Read more: Hero plumber who went viral forced to stop helping those in need (Yahoo News, 2-min read)
"People kept asking us if we knew anywhere they could go to get some food. People were going to food banks but the majority of it was past its sold-by date and people didn't feel comfortable eating it," he told Yahoo News.
"It clicked in my head I need to restart it up again. And I started it up again as a food drive separate from the shop, the office that we've got. All I do is I purchase food every day or every week and I just fill it up, people come in and they can get 15 items for £4.
"People were coming to us from all over the UK saying to us: 'Well, what can we do? How can we get help? We don't live in Burnley, we can't drive all the way to Burnley and get food off you or help off you'."
He said the need had "massively, massively" increased in recent years because of the cost of living crisis, explaining the food drive was now spending around £6,000 per week on food shopping, despite donations to Depher having dropped by around 80% in January.
"We make £3,500 back off that so we're losing, we're losing every week but to see the smile on people and know that these going to be fed and they're going to have full stomachs when they go to bed, especially elderly people, it's worth that - it's worth that sacrifice," he said.
Read more: Plumber who goes extra mile named among finalists of local hero awards (Lancashire Telegraph, 2-min read)
"I get members of the public saying to me 'is there any help available' and I don't like signposting people because (lots of service require you to) fill in 10 forms, jump 15 walls... it's soul destroying," he said.
"It really makes you think that no one cares and that's where the anxiety and depression comes in. We remove all of that, we get rid of the stigma. We just give people the simple solution which is the help that they need."
Anderson secured a grant from the Next Energy foundation for £40,000 last year and again in 2023. He said: "We have a food delivery system now that goes all over the UK", outlining he has orders delivered via Asda for those people who meet the criteria.
"They also get gas and electric put into the bank and they can top their meters up with that," Anderson explained.
"People feel comfortable, there's no stigma to it, they don't feel out of place."
Anderson is aiming to raise £50,000 with his new GoFundMe drive, and says he intends to continue providing as much support as possible.
"While I've got the ability and while I've got the funds coming in, I'm just going to do what needs to be done, just to be human," he said.
