Yahoo Finance Help the Hungry: Behind the pictures - The three people helped by our campaign captured in artists’s work
Ramy Marcelo, a 20-year-old, who fled Algeria because of the continuous violence in his region, sat slouched in a small room at the Muslim Welfare House.
Every Tuesday and Wednesday the tucked away mosque that sits behind the iron gates of Seven Sisters delivers hot meals cooked by volunteers from With Compassion, using food supplied by our appeal partner, The Felix Project.
“It’s a very hard life for me right now," he told the Independent through a translator, adding that sport had proven to be an anchor for him through difficult times.
“I’m struggling, although my mental health has been affected it hasn’t been too much because of football – football helps keep me distracted”.
Mr Marcelo arrived in the UK from France at the start of this year as an asylum seeker and was granted asylum just before the pandemic hit the country – forcing every shop and business to close its doors.
“The first lockdown was hard,” he said, “because everything was closed and I didn’t know where to go, what to do, what to eat and I was stressed – it was very hard to survive.”
More than three million people reported going hungry during the first lockdown and the number of adults who are now food insecure in Britain is estimated to have quadrupled due to the pandemic, according to a recent report by the Food Foundation and King’s College London.
But The Independent, alongside With Compassion and Felix, have worked together since 16 November to serve up 1,000 free meals every day using trucks supplied by Food Truck Masters.
“This second lockdown has been much better because of the help I’m now getting from the Muslim Welfare House and the food from the trucks”, Mr Marcelo added.
One young woman, Sarah, said the free food from our campaign saved her from the anxiety she had been feeling in the hostel she had been staying in.
The 23-year-old said there were times she would be scared to go and make food because the space was occupied by older men who gave her unwanted attention.
“The building that I was in was a place where there were addicts, ex-prisoners and people with very serious problems. It just wasn’t safe for me,” she said.
Sarah, who previously suffered with mental health issues, added: “It’s been hard during the pandemic, I had men knocking on my doors and I didn’t feel supported at all by those who were supposed to help me.”
She said she had only recently started getting food from the Muslim Welfare House – and was grateful for what the campaign was doing.
Curries, moussaka, vegetables and rice are among the meals dished out in the trucks which visit community groups and food banks daily to offer the comfort and solidarity good food can provide.
“I come here even though I’m not Muslim but this community has been supportive and they allow people in need to just come and take food”, Sarah added.
Another food recipient who is supported by the Muslim Welfare House and receives weekly meals from With Compassion is Mohamed, a father of two who lives with a disability.
The 38-year-old said he lost a delivery job after getting into a motorbike accident last year, and now relies on his wife to help take care of him.
“My wife, who was working as a food and beverage assistant, lost her job too – she was made redundant – and now she’s been looking after me and the children full-time which hasn’t been easy.”
With no income and a family to feed, they have struggled to make ends meet.
“It’s been quite tough for me because it’s put a strain on my mental health”, Mohamed added. “Sometimes I’m depressed and sometimes I’m anxious about my future. I was working as a delivery driver to raise enough money to study coding and get another job to support my family and then this accident happened.”
But the family’s food ordeal was ameliorated just last week when they heard of the collaboration between With Compassion and Muslim Welfare House – and since then they have been receiving additional free meals.
Mohamed, whose youngest child is one, said his children get “excited” each week the volunteers make a delivery.
This November and December we will be delivering food directly to 1,000 people a day through our partner With Compassion. Please donate here to help us do all we can to ensure no one goes hungry this Christmas.
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