London
\nThe King surprised volunteers and users at a food bank in Milton Keynes with an unexpected visit on Thursday afternoon.
\nThey were only told an hour before he arrived after commemorating Milton Keynes\u2019s new status as a city, which was awarded during last year\u2019s Platinum Jubilee.
\nCharles was amused when he found out the identity of their VIP guest had been kept secret, laughing \u201cYou didn\u2019t know why?\u201d
\nThe King was introduced to volunteers, users and supporters of the MK Food Bank, which supports more than 5,000 families across the city.
\nLouisa Hobbs, the food bank\u2019s operations manager, showed him round and said his interest was clearly genuine after he requested to visit a food bank in the city.
\nShe told the PA news agency: \u201cSome people had definitely put two and two together but others were absolutely shocked and came up to me afterwards going, \u2018What?\u2019. I think everybody was absolutely thrilled.
\n\u201cHe was genuinely interested, so friendly, so interested in every single person, what they do, who they are and where they come from. It was a really human touch.
\n\u201cI think the volunteers will remember this day for the rest of their lives.\u201d
\nWhen introduced to Charles, Rose Mepham, a 72-year-old volunteer, told him, \u201cI\u2019d love to curtsey but I\u2019ve just had a new knee\u201d, to which the King replied, \u201cNo, don\u2019t even think about it.\u201d
\nShe said she was \u201cstarstruck\u201d to have met him and it was \u201cweird\u201d how normal he was to speak to.
\n\u201cHow many times in your life do you get in your life to meet the King,\u201d she told the PA news agency.
\n\u201cIt was absolutely brilliant, so normal and that\u2019s a bit weird isn\u2019t it? He is an absolutely lovely man.
\n\u201cHe made sure that he shook every single person\u2019s hand in this room and that\u2019s important.
\n\u201cIt shows just what he is going to do for our country.\u201d
\nAs he spoke to local supermarket bosses who support the food bank, Charles called out and requested that Charlotte Hill, chief executive of the Felix Project, join the conversation.
\nThe charity, which distributes surplus supermarket food to stop it going to waste, recently received a donation of 800 fridges and freezers from the Prince of Wales\u2019s Charitable Fund.
\nMs Hill told PA: \u201cThe King called me over to speak to the supermarkets here today to make sure they understood the investment in the blast freezers we have.
\n\u201cIt should be able to help us access even more food from the supermarkets.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s our commitment at the Felix Project \u2013 to make sure no good food is wasted and no one goes hungry.\u201d
\nShe added: \u201cIt is a great privilege that he is so engaged and interested in this agenda and I\u2019m always so impressed with his great knowledge.
\n\u201cIt is always brilliant to talk to him about it because he has such genuine passion for the work we do.\u201d
\nThe food bank, which was founded in 2004, handed out 26,000 food parcels last year, a 40% increase on 2021.
\nThe cost-of-living crisis has seen demand soar but donations fall by a third.
\nIt operates from an industrial estate and distributes food at 10 centres in the city and also via a mobile top-up van.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
London The King surprised volunteers and users at a food bank in Milton Keynes with an unexpected visit on Thursday afternoon. They were only told an hour before he arrived after commemorating Milton Keynes\u2019s new status as a city, which was awarded during last year\u2019s Platinum Jubilee. Charles was amused when he found out the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-314391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n