Muslim Aid appeals to Londoners of all faiths and none for foodstuffs for a Food Drive Friday (15 December), a flagship interfaith event to launch the charity’s Winter Campaign

East Londoners carrying items of food for those who go without over the Christmas and winter period will give their donations to Muslim Aid outside the East London Mosque this Friday, 15 December, between 12 and 2pm. Muslim Aid has teamed up with the East London Mosque and Crisis for the collection which the charities hope will beat last year’s record of 10 tonnes.

Nozmul Hussain, Chief Executive Officer of East London Mosque, Laura Janner-Klausner, Senior Rabbi of British Reform Judaism, Leon Silver, President of East London Central Synagogue, Siddika Talukdar, Secretary of the London Central Mosque Trust Ltd & Islamic Cultural Centre (Regents Park Mosque) and The Revd Bernadette Hegarty of St Pauls, Bow Common Church will join Muslim Aid staff and volunteers to accept donations for the Food Drive.

The Food Drive is a major component of Muslim Aid’s Winter Campaign, which has been happening annually since 2011 and this year is entitled Share the Love.

“We are absolutely delighted to be working with Crisis, and to know that all of the food our supporters donate from this collection will go to Crisis at Christmas,” says Muslim Aid Chief Executive Officer Jehangir Malik OBE. “As British Muslims, we enjoy the Christmas spirit of sharing love and giving, which resonates with our Islamic values of compassion and charity.”

He continues: “We are shocked about the record high figures from Crisis that 4,134 people slept rough in England alone on any given night in 2016 and, while as a global relief and development agency we are committed to raising millions of pounds for overseas aid, we at Muslim Aid also have a responsibility to help desperate people here at home. The Prophet Muhammad said: “He who sleeps on a full stomach whilst his neighbour goes hungry is not one of us.”

Crisis UK quote:

A call for donations such as rice, pasta, cereal and tinned goods was announced to the 7,000 people attending Friday prayers at the East London Mosque last week. Pupils from the local secondary school, the London East Academy, and the Islamic cultural weekend school, the Rashidun Supplementary School, will attend to donate and help collect donations. Local businesses such as Taj Stores in Brick Lane and the Pride of Asia caterer will also make donations. The food will be transported over the weekend to a Crisis at Christmas warehouse.

Muslim Aid’s winter campaign Share the Love will also include:

• Similar food drives at mosques in Balham (12 December) and Tooting (13 December). (A collection has already taken place last weekend at Croydon mosque where the response was phenomenal and the congregation doubled what they gave last year. Although not yet officially verified, organisers estimate the collection was between four and five tonnes).
• Distributions of rucksacks containing a sleeping bag, gloves, scarf, and cutlery to the homeless and elderly in Bethnal Green, Deptford and Ilford.
• Soup kitchens in North West London (5 January 2018), Walthamstow, London (21 January 2018), and Exeter, and one run by students at the London School of Economics.
• Provision of draught excluders and radiator reflectors for The Heat Project in Waltham Forest, helping the elderly and alone to keep warm.