The Queen took the vogue for street food to the heart of royal life by getting to work in a takeaway van at Clarence House.
Queen Camilla took to the micro kitchen of the van with TikTik’s star foodie, Spudman, to launch a new platform to encourage people to volunteer.
Spudman brought the ‘Role of a Lunchtime’ van to The King and Queen’s London home to mark the start of the GoVo platform, a new online portal from the Royal Voluntary Service that aims to make helping others easier.
New research from the RVS showed that almost three quarters of people asked would voluteer more if the role lasted about the same time as their lunch hour. The new initiative, GoVo, shows volunteering opportunities near to users and everything listed is a straightforward role from dog walking to delivering shopping to those who need extra support. It’s been made possible by the People’s Postcode Lottery.
The ‘Role of a Lunchtime’ van is one way that people can find out more about the opportunities available. It has a QR code on its side that would be volunteers can scan to get to the GoVo platform.
Queen Camilla’s presence in the pop up kitchen had an effect on the menu. As she helped prepare jacket potatoes for would be volunteers, Coronation Chicken was added to the menu as a filling, a nod to the historic ceremony in which she and King Charles were crowned in May 2023.
There were more regular offerings under royal control as well with baked beans and cheese and tuna mayo also on The Queen’s to do list.
Spudman has become a sensation on TikTok where he now has over 4 million followers. He started posting videos of his jacket potato business in Tamworth, Staffordshire as well as behind the scenes chats and first started going viral in November 2023.
He was complimentary about his royal helper. Spudman, real name Ben Newman, later said that The Queen was a ‘natural’ at serving potatoes.
However, she didn’t seem overly keen on the royal filling for her own lunch – Queen Camilla was photographed taking away a potato with tuna mayo before Spudman headed off to Shoreditch to continue the campaign to get more people volunteering.
Queen Camilla is the patron of the Royal Voluntary Service and met several of those who support it as she helped launch GoVo.
The charity revealed that people have a very clear idea of how idea of how they can support others in their lunch breaks with helping out at a food bank the most popular voluntary role in research conducted by the RVS.
If you want to find out more, you can head to govo.org to see opportunities and sign up.
