Queen's Birthday Honours: Southsea church group leader awarded BEM after helping feed scores of vulnerable people during pandemic

Jim Campbell, who leads the Friday Fridge group based at St Jude’s Church, Southsea, is being awarded a British Empire Medal in the Queen’s birthday honours for services to the community of Southsea.

He co-ordinates the team who open up St Jude’s Church every Friday night for ‘Friday Fridge’ which offers café-style food like sandwiches and toasties, hot drinks and companionship.

When it was initially launched in October 2006, it attracted those leaving pubs and clubs in Southsea, who dropped in on the way home for late-night conversation and prayer. The project has evolved over the years, so that many of its current visitors are vulnerable, like the homeless.

During almost two years of the pandemic, Friday Fridge operated as a takeaway-only service, with guests collecting pre-prepared hot food and groceries from the front doors of the church – every single Friday from March 2020. Hundreds of people were fed, and the number of guests more than doubled throughout the pandemic.

In 2022, Friday Fridge reverted back to its café-style origins.

Co-ordinator Jim Campbell, 60, who has volunteered at Friday Fridge for the almost 16 years it has been open, said: ‘It’s incredible to be nominated for this honour, and I’d genuinely like to accept it on behalf of the whole team, not just myself. Those involved over the years have included people from our church, other churches, other faiths and those without faith – all of whom just want to help those in need.

‘For the first five or six years, Friday Fridge did open from 10.30pm to 2.30am and attracted those leaving local pubs and clubs. But the clubs closed and some of the pubs moved and there was less of that passing traffic. It became a place where we could welcome anyone who was in need, and we ultimately moved to open from 8pm-10pm.’

Jim expects to receive his BEM from the Lord Lieutenant and also to attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace.