Beckham endorses British Pakistanis’ initiative to feed workers fighting COVID-19

[Shahzaz ud din]

Beckham endorses British Pakistanis’ initiative to feed workers fighting COVID-19
By News Desk
Published: April 8, 2020
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Three social entrepreneurs are campaigning to donate one million free meals to NHS staff and key workers across UK. ALL PHOTOS BY: ONE MILLION MEAL

Star footballer and British celebrity David Beckham has endorsed “One Million Meal”, an initiative of three social entrepreneurs of Pakistani origin who are campaigning to donate one million free meals to National Health Service (NHS) staff and key workers fighting COVID-19 across the United Kingdom.

“@onemillionmeals is doing great work on getting nutritious and healthy meals to key-workers and healthcare staff,” he said in a message on Tuesday.

The campaign is garnering support from the leading British politicians, celebrities, corporate institutions and mainstream British media.

The initiative aims to provide key workers like NHS workers, police, school staff and firefighters with free, nutritious food during the COVID-19 crisis while raising funds through the general public and collaborating with food platforms, food chains and restaurants all over the UK.

The all-volunteer team identifies demand from essential workplaces, and then arranges deliveries from participating restaurants to these workplaces. Each meal costs no more than £5 to provide and must be nutritious.

In less than a week, One Million Meals has already provided more than 4,000 meals to key workers at various agencies and institutions, including staff at Croydon Metropolitan Police, Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford, Whipps Cross Hospital, Croydon University Hospital in London, Luton & Dunstable Hospital, Savernake Community Hospital in Marlborough and food banks in Southend-On-Sea.

The campaign was initiated by three social entrepreneurs – Bilal Bin Saqib, an LSE alumni, and Forbes 30 Under 30; Suleman Raza, an award winning chef and food-entrepreneur; and Arif Anis, corporate thought leader, writer, speaker and author of I’MPOSSIBLE.

The volunteer team has grown from three members to 13, overseen by an advisory board operating through Zoom and online platforms.

The initiative is particularly helping isolated community hospitals like Savernake Hospital in Wiltshire that reached out to the team, saying they would need daily meals as the local pub feeding them earlier had closed down while no canteen was open and the staff was unable to leave during the shifts.

Arif Anis, the initiative’s co-founder said: “We decided to call our initiative One Million Meals to set ourselves, and the public, an ambitious but essential goal. Our heroes in the NHS and on the front lines deserve a good, hot meal after a day of exhausting and dangerous work fighting the pandemic. Everyone has their part to play in this crisis; we might not be able to save lives ourselves, but we can provide our life-savers with the fuel they need to beat this pandemic.”

Suleman Raza said, “We are signing up restaurants, food businesses and food platforms as the demand is coming from all over the UK so we are setting up local partnerships to reach all the corners. We don’t want to refuse any demand and that is where we need more hands to join us throughout the UK including corporate backers. It is heartening that Pakistani restaurants and businesses are generously joining the campaign.”

Bilal Bin Saqib, in his message, said: “So far, One Million Meals has been relying on our team’s resources and the amazing generosity of our sponsors to provide meals to key workers and frontline staff. We have now had over 25 hospitals express their interest in our services. However, to meet our increasing demand, we are reaching out to the public to donate to the campaign to help us bring food to the people keeping them safe and healthy.”

One Million Meals has currently raised over £12,000 of its initial £50,000 target in three days through a GoFundMe fundraiser. 100% of the money raised goes towards providing meals to key workers and frontline staff, and the initiative is overseen by a voluntary advisory board to provide oversight and maximise impact.

Public and businesses are encouraged to don

 

[Azadkashmir]

hope beckham contributes.

 

[Asian.Century]

British-Pakistani women in Manchester help needy during COVID-19 lockdown
World
Ramsha Khan
May 10, 2020
Initiative led by Roshi Javed provides medical supplies, food, safety and security to NHS staff and needy individuals

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British Pakistani women in Manchester head to donate food to the community. Photo:Geo News/Ramsha Khan
MANCHESTER: A group of British Pakistani women in Manchester have created a community support group to fight challenges caused by COVID-19 lockdown in Ramadan.

The initiative which is led by Roshi Javed, a leading community activist, is providing medical supplies, food, safety and security to National Health Services (NHS) staff and individuals in need.

Javed started the initiative, in association with Muslims for Britain, with up to 30 Muslim families from Manchester who provide aid as well as collect donations to run the program.

“I felt that I had a duty as a Muslim to help my community in need, I am born and bred in Manchester therefore this city is very close to my heart,” Javed said.

Atifa Shah, of Muslims for Britain said, “We have distributed 3,000 hot meals to the NHS and key frontline workers and the homeless. We have also distributed over a thousand food packs to vulnerable communities such as the elderly and people living below the poverty line. We have achieved all of this just within the last month.”

Women load the food items in their car before departing for distribution. Photo: Geo News/author
Every Friday, over a hundred bags of food rations are provided to mosques and food banks across Manchester, who distribute them to families in need. During the weekends, the group distributes face masks and gloves to key workers in stores across greater Manchester who may be vulnerable to the coronavirus, revealed the organisation.

Network activities to distribute aid are organised through social media outlets such as Facebook and WhatsApp, where various members are designated roles to achieve charitable goals. This also helps adhering to the social distancing guidelines in the UK.

Farhat Rasheed Khan, a volunteer of the group, said, “I donate weekly to this charity; this country has given me so much security and love, so the least I can do is to give back to people in need, also this is what Islam and Ramadan is all about.”

Within the last week, the network successfully has provided hundreds of rations every week to local NHS hospitals and vulnerable people across Manchester. However, due to Ramadan, this number has increased as the charity tries to provide to Muslim families in need.

A man receives donation from the women. Photo: Geo News/Ramsha Khan
“Ramadan is a holy month and we have a large number of Muslims in need due to the financial collapse in UK and due to businesses shutting down many Muslim families are struggling. We are reaching out to more people this month," Javed said.

Since the lock down, up to two million British citizens have applied for government welfare and universal credit and claims of job seekers allowance have soared up to 300,000.

According to Greater Together Manchester, a charity combating homelessness, over 5,000 people are homeless across greater Manchester.

 

[Dalit]

Our mosque is providing meals over here in The Netherlands to homeless people and hospitals. I think this is happening in many Western capitals where Pakistanis along with other Muslim communities are doing their best to help as much as possible.