Supporting families with food packs during Covid-19.

During the pandemic, we distributed 500 parcels of food and essential items to 2000 people all across Birmingham in collaboration with Green Lane Mosque (GLM). Whilst at the peak of the pandemic, our funding helped Green Lane Mosque to set up a temporary mortuary on site to cope with the increasing number of deaths. A 40ft container was set up in the mosque care park to help store bodies of the deceased, allowing us to preserve the honour and dignity of those who passed away.

Food packs contained:

• Pasta, spaghetti, pasta sauce, cereals, baked beans, soup, rice and tinned fish
• Baby milk, nappies, long-life milk
• Sugar, biscuits, tea, coffee and juice

One beneficiary we helped was a single father who is living on his own and struggles with his mental health. Sadly after the break-up of his marriage and family life, he fell into depression and neglected his health. His children live in a different city to him and have very little contact with him. Fortunately, one day, his daughter decided to call him but couldn’t get through to him. She was very worried and called on GLM to go out to check on him. When a member of our welfare team went out to visit him, they found him in a very bad state. His health was dire, he had signs of malnutrition and had been living with no electric or gas for 2 months and very little food. His fridge and cupboards were bare and there were signs that he had attempted to cook something a long time ago.

Alhamdulilah, we were able to reconnect his gas and electric and we supplied him with a generously sized food parcel. We continued to deliver parcels to him and also provided hot cooked meals to him during the first lockdown. The support we have provided will hopefully go a long way to help him recover and return to living a normal healthy life.

Jazak Allah khair to Islamic Relief and International Waqf Fund for funding our walk in foodbank and emergency food deliveries during COVID-19.