Kettering project pioneer celebrates three decades of sending vital food parcels to eastern Europe

When the Balkan wars began in the early 1990s, Kettering man Derek Wade knew he had to help.

He started what is now known as Harvest for The Hungry (HfTH), mobilising churches and schools to pack boxes with food and aid to be given to those who had been displaced.

And 30 years on he’s still going strong – having helped ensure hundreds of thousands of vital parcels have been sent to those in eastern Europe.

The 79-year-old said: “When I started HfTH I had no idea that 30 years later it would still be needed.

"But with the similarities between what we started with in Bosnia and Kosovo, and the current invasion of Ukraine and the impact that is having on all eastern European countries, sadly I fear HfTH will be even more needed this year and in the following years.”

Derek, a member of St Botolph’s Church in Barton Seagrave, was working as a science and maths teacher at a college in Dunstable in 1991 when he and wife Jane considered going into some form of full-time Christian work. Some of their close friends had been going into eastern Europe in the Communist days, taking in Bibles and aid, and the needs of those living in those countries started to hit home.

That summer Derek, Jane and a friend took humanitarian aid and Bibles to charity Transform Europe Network’s (TEN) projects in Romania and Bulgaria, making a 5,000-mile round trip in a large van.

Derek said: “It was on that trip to Romania that I realised the difference food parcels made to families in extreme poverty.

"And I guess that was when vision for HfTH started to develop.”

He was then accepted for early retirement at the age of just 49 and became director of EuroAid, emphasising TEN’s humanitarian work.

In the autumn of 1993 TEN was offered the chance to share the cost and load space of a transport plane, taking vital aid into Zagreb.

Derek said: “That airlift of food parcels was the beginning of an annual Harvest time project which has become Harvest for The Hungry, so this harvest will be our 30th anniversary.

“As I look at the devastating Ukraine war, the similarities are so clear: a brutal focus of aggression sending refugees fleeing, and the knock-on effect on those neighbouring countries providing refuge and help.”

In the project’s first year almost every church and school in Kettering joined in and HfTH quickly attracted increasing support across the UK. Derek commissioned manufacturer Rigid Containers Ltd of Desborough to supply strong boxes.

Boxes were first flown out to Zagreb but from then on TEN, with growing support, started their own appeals led by Derek. Soon annual deliveries were made to Russia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Serbia, Romania, Moldova and other countries.

Over the three decades hundreds of thousands of parcels and hot meals worth more than £2.5m have been provided from across the country.

Now retired, Derek focuses his attention just on the Kettering area and this year he is encouraging every church and school to take part in the charity’s 30th anniversary appeal.

You can support the project by visiting https://ten-uk.org/harvest-for-the-hungry/.