LET US TAKE THIS LOCKDOWN TO PUT AN END TO OUR INCREASING DIVISIONS

Dear friends,

I started Mercato Metropolitano to begin a movement. A movement which would, little by little, change the way we live within our cities, our towns and our communities. A movement based on the values that makes human beings equals: healthy, real food; friendship; community; caring; compassion.

We need all of the above to be strong, to be resilient and to make our cities better places to live.

But it is easy to forget these very human values as we watch the election results come in across America. Whatever your feelings on the candidates, no matter who you want to win, this 50/50 division is terrifying and does not represent what I believe is true human nature.

“We have more in common than that which divides us.” These were the words of the late MP Jo Cox on her first speech in parliament in 2015. Since, we have seen nothing from our political institutions than attempts to divide us.

And yet throughout all of this, we have remained dedicated to our cause and optimistic about the change we can create. We still are. But this year has brought us so much fear and even more division, that our usual positive attitude has been tested.

When I look outside of the window of the fist MM we opened in Elephant & Castle, I see a place that has changed a lot. When I first arrived here, people were scared to walk by after 5pm. The place was desolated and dangerous.

Nonetheless I saw potential in this place and I decided to open, and with a bunch of mad friends like me –my team, we turned an abandoned building into one of the best examples of positive gentrification a city has ever experienced.

Four million people visited MM last year. No fast food was served, no sugary drinks, no chemicals in the food. 550 kids were fed during a summer school retreat and thousands more came to understand the art of sharing a healthy meal within a community setting.

And we did this with the help of a welcoming city, my beloved adopted home — London.

The Mayor helped us, Southwark council helped us, the schools and institutions helped us, but most of all, the citizens helped us, and we helped them back with all of our efforts to support our community.

We never closed, even during the first lockdown, when we kept our Grocery open to ensure we could deliver free meals to vulnerable families and isolated individuals. No-one at MM blinked or faltered for a single second, despite our own concerns with both of our markets closed.

We invested our money and our time to achieve the results we wanted for our community. Food for all we could feed: not subsidised by the Government, not junk food with zero manufacturing cost that would not set us back, not food that causes such a disproportionate number of obese children and adults in the UK. Good, honest food for all.

Why? Because we knew people’s health was at stake. Not just directly because of COVID, but their nutritional and economic health, which in turn makes people more susceptible to the effects of the virus itself.

I am writing this letter as last night I could not sleep. The new lockdown is terrible news for us, but mostly for members of our community, who will not have sufficient food to feed their kids.

It should not be not a moment to judge or to be divisive. It is a moment in which our message of unity, of compassion, of happiness and of sharing human values must be reinforced.

But yesterday two police officers put aside all of this incredible work in favour of a petty and unjust decision. A decision that may have had great impact on our business, our customers and our community.

We were asked to close until further notice — just two days before lockdown — because our final customer left the MM site at 10.07pm. We had 900 people leaving our premises in organised phases and not all together, to keep people safe and socially distanced and no gathered in a close crowd. Where is the common sense in this decision?

If there is an institution I have always loved and worked well with, it is the police force in London. We have been in talks with them for the last four years, and even in the last three months, on how to better address the and adapt to the new circumstances.

They have greatly supported us, as they knew they were supporting the community too indirectly.

To keep MM open, in super safe conditions as we have successfully done, we have provided a space for citizens to chill out, meet and socialise again, to be fed with healthy alternatives to the chains of junk food, to help children and elders.

I will always thank the Mayor of London, the police force and all institutions for this. But the act of a single police officer, who forced us to close immediately, is the act of someone who yes, was doing her duty and I respect this, but it showed a lack of judgement or understanding of the connection we have with our community.

Thankfully, common sense has eventually prevailed. This morning, thanks to the incredible support of you — our community — we received a visit from the Metropolitan Police, who reversed their closure decision.

They emphasised their praise for our full compliance with the rules and regulations during the last four years — and past four months especially — just as we appreciate their efforts and support to us to keep everything in line with the regulations and providing a safe place for us to operate.

As I thought, yesterday’s incident was the reaction of an over-zealous individual who we knew was not representative of the standard policies of either the Metropolitan Police or Southwark Council.

But it was just another signal of the divided world we live in, where everything is in black and white. For this person, it was considered more immoral to be finally closed seven minutes after a curfew (that has not proved to work), than it is to reduce the final opportunities people will have for the next month to socialise together, with good food.

The voices of powerful people ae dividing us to better control the population and drive sales and economic returns for the rich, while voting against children accessing free school meals and watching small businesses be run into the ground — all the while less than 2% of COVID cases are attributed to a spread in hospitality.

We are no different. Our shut down damages 400 employees and 100 families directly, who cannot work for the next month at least. It will also impact thousands of families in our community, worsening the mental equilibrium of our citizens even more.

If one good thing came out of the first lockdown, it was the sense of togetherness and community that came from it. That has all but disappeared since and I feel we are more divided than ever, with racial tensions particularly high at this moment.

There is so much hatred and while there will always be some people who hate the others, we should be working to change minds, not increase division.

I believe that while racism is ingrained into our society, no-one is born a racist. No-one is born wanting to hate his/ her fellow citizen. When you invite two people who seem to hate one another to a table, and you cook for them, let their children play together, all that hate fades away. They are suddenly sharing a moment together that goes beyond hate.

So, let us not surrender to people who want to divide us, who hate for no reason, let us stick together and remember that the “other” doesn’t exist. We are not British or American, Italian or French, Russian or Chinese — these are false borders. We are all one human race — people who all want to create families, to eat and to live in a healthy, unpolluted world.

I can assure you that MM will not close forever. We will keep our hearts open and embrace everybody — even those who may oppose our aims, and the MMovement will continue to spread.

We are here to feed, to make people happy and to help the less fortunate — and more fortunate. All people, whatever their religion, politics, social status.

And today our courageous trading partners at MM will continue to feed our community.

The police officer who closed us down is invited too. A good warm meal and an understanding of the work we do may soften her heart.

Thanks to everybody for your support in these difficult times. Please do join us today as we celebrate and convene safely together — physically distanced, but socially connected — for one final time before lockdown. We will see you soon.

Andrea