Every Saturday at 5 PM your local charity, Newham Muslim Safety Forum, is organising a food bank in East Ham’s High Street North, to help people tackle COVID-19 and deliver the food to those in need, how was this idea born? Who is behind it?

Our group was part of the local Covid mutual aid group and while working with that group we found people who were struggling to cope with their current circumstances. We started this food bank charity in recognition of the grave situation that has been gripping our Borough since the outbreak of Covid-19.

Newham is one of the poorest boroughs across the country with a large number of people on work permits, international student visas and failed asylum seekers. We opened a stall at High Street North East Ham during the first lockdown to register people facing problems with their jobs, grocery shopping, rent arrears, and paying gas and electricity bills. A large number of people turned up.

Tell us a bit more about Newham Muslim Safety Forum? When did you launch that local charity and what is the main agenda? What kind of social problems you are dealing with on a daily basis? Does COVID-19 impact the way how you are working?

The Newham Muslim Safety Forum was formed in 2019 to represent Mosques, community groups and activists working to protect and ensure the safety of Muslims living in the Borough. We are passionate about working to promote cohesiveness and diversity and pride ourselves on our work with representatives of other faith groups working for the common good of all of Newham’s community.

Our priority at the moment is helping the poor and vulnerable living in the Borough, through this awful Covid-19 pandemic. Nearly 37 per cent of children in Newham live in poverty and we have the highest rates of malnutrition and hunger in London. This is even more acute during the current period as jobs have been lost and thousands have been furloughed.

So, to help ordinary residents we have organised a community foodbank to distribute essential food items, free of charge. We have received donations of money and food from individuals, groups and local businesses including food items which have helped enormously in our effort to help the needy. We have been strictly following National Guidelines ensuring social distancing and frequent sanitizing along with ensuring that everyone wears a mask.

If you think about Newham during a pandemic, what has changed in your opinion? How is Newham now and how was Newham before coronavirus hit the neighbourhood? Do you think the idea of a foodbank evolved during the pandemic on a slightly different level?

Pre Covid, Newham was a lively borough where many diverse communities gathered in various social and religious events. The areas specifically around Upton Park, Green Street and Stratford attracted visitors from all over Europe. Green Street is famous for Asian communities as it’s considered a hub for Asian clothing, jewellery and food. whereas Westfield Stratford has some of the biggest brands as well as being a fantastic transport link to the rest of the country and Europe.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have seen lots of businesses and shops closing down for good thus making many people jobless and dependent on social benefits. There has been a consistent rise in poverty due to the lockdown.

In the last few weeks your foodbank delivered over 1000 packages of food to those in need, including rice packages, bread, baby clothes and nappies. How do you feel about that? How come it was possible to get such huge support, also from the local businesses?

We started with a small group of friends and activists who initially delved into our own pockets to buy food and local community individuals, people from mosques and different charities saw us on Facebook and social media and started to help us. Local charities also picked up the news and started donations of food and vegetables.

E5 children’s charity also contacted us and provided us with lots of children’s warm clothes, shoes, nappies as well as feminine hygiene products. Our foodbank is on High Street North and many generous people passing by have also dropped off various food items.

Touseef Ahmed, a local volunteer, standing outside the foodbank preparing for another busy Saturday

What about the people who are coming to the food bank who may not need the support the support?

I know there is a small group of people who are taking advantage of this foodbank and stealing from people who are truly deserving. I can only ask them to please stop – show some empathy and kindness towards the people who are actually struggling to make ends meet. They are taking food from people who might be starving and genuinely require it. This is a time for us to come together as a community and support each other and not act like scavengers.

How long you think you will carry on with that local food bank? Do you have any final message to all your volunteers, local activists and other charities supporting the foodbank every Saturday?

First of all, a big thank you to the local mosque ‘Masjid e Tauheed’ for letting us run our foodbank from their premises free of cost, and every single individual, activist, group and charity for supporting us with running this food bank… without you we wouldn’t have been able to help so many deserving families and individuals. Running this food bank has made me realise how amazingly kind and generous our community is and I hope that as long as everyone continues with their support, we aim to run this food bank for as long as we possibly can.

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