When the fishmonger in Borough market gave David a whole cod it didn’t take him long to rustle up 100 fish pies and freeze them for delivery to deprived households.
It wasn’t quite feeding the 5,000 but David, now the vicar at St Mary’s Ladywell, was pleased with his achievement.
At the time David Adamson-Hill was the newbie at St George the Martyr Southwark. He had just finished his training in the priesthood at Mirfield theological college, west Yorkshire,and was one of the curates in Southwark.
At St Georges he found he could put his culinary skills and enjoyment of cooking to great effect. “It was home cooking,” he quips. But he would regularly serve up lots of meals for people in need, using surplus food.
Two years on the Covid-19 pandemic hit and it was a game-changer. David’s cooking was even more in demand.
“I remember how my wife and I hired Zip cars to collect surplus food from local supermarkets and Borough market and then produce meals for children and people in need.
As the Covid crisis deepened the church won support from Southwark council and teamed up with charity Fareshare to ensure regular deliveries of fresh and tinned food.
The kitchen “was producing a 1,000 meals a day,” he says. More than 85,000 frozen meals were made and distributed during that period.
After four years as an assistant priest in Croydon, David now finds himself with his wife and two children in Ladywell as the new vicar of St Mary’s.
He confesses he is sometimes seen as “an elevated member of the local community” simply because of his role. “I am asked for my opinion about all kinds of things … but I’ve only just moved to the area. I have a lot to learn about Ladywell and the people who live here.”
“I need to understand what matters here. My views are not fixed.”
David joined the church after deciding a life at Rolls-Royce wasn’t for him. He had left school planning to go to university to study engineering.
But instead he joined Rolls-Royce on an apprenticeship scheme. “I wanted to make things – work with my hands. That’s what I’d enjoyed doing at school.”
He completed his apprenticeship and worked for a while with R-R in Derby before finally deciding to train as a priest.
Now in Ladywell he doesn’t want to simply replicate what he did in Croydon and Southwark. “That’s why I need to listen and learn.’
Work on securing the future of the church is underway and David is keen to push that forward. Over the last decade the most urgent roof repairs have been carried out after monumental fundraising efforts, although “it still leaks a bit.”
Work on the church tower should start in the New Year after an appeal for donations, which has raised £150,000 of the £250,000 needed, and further applications for funding.
The church crypt has also been modernised and wifi is being installed so that it can be let to local groups and help raise much needed funds
But for the next few weeks, David will be fully occupied getting to know his congregation and the community, hosting a Christmas market and a carol service, and planning several services through a busy Christmas season.