200-strong volunteer team sets up food deliveries for NHS workers

Zakaria Masjid and Education Centre in Savile Town, Dewsbury is set to launch a delivery service for NHS frontline workers to help provide them with essential food items while they tackle the threat of Coronavirus.

The charity, which provides services to the local community in Dewsbury and surrounding areas, recently launched a COVID-19 support service, manned by over 200 volunteers, which has already provided support to more than 80 families, including single parents, widows, people with existing illnesses, the elderly and NHS staff.

The charity has also distributed free fruit and vegetables to residents of Chickenley and Thornhill and is working with Kirklees Council to support the referrals made, alongside their new initiative to support NHS staff.

COVID-19 support service lead Yusuf Patel told Yorkshire Live: “We understand the sacrifices that NHS frontline workers are making and the unprecedented stress that they are currently under, so we are providing a pick-up and drop-off shopping service and a delivery of a pre-made pack of daily necessities including rice, pasta, kidney beans, chick peas and tea bags.

“We are also in dialogue with our local NHS trust and hope to be starting a delivery of packs for frontline NHS staff to their distribution centre very shortly.

“We hope that this service will go some way towards alleviating the worry of some daily necessities they need enabling them to focus on what they do best.”

The charity is also supporting their community’s other key workers – and anybody else in need.

Yusuf says: “The key workers are so busy helping us that they often forget about themselves - we say to them that you are not forgotten about and we wholeheartedly appreciate all that you do.

“We aim to help any person regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, age or disability in any way that we can.”

He adds: “We are all finding ourselves in a very strange time right now - we know some readers may be struggling with the changes we are all having to adapt to.

“We understand that the challenges of self-isolation are huge, and that mental health can also be an issue for many, but we are here to support.

“I myself am having to shield because of a medical condition, but even from home we can be a positive influence on people and look after one another.

“If we can play a small part in helping, whether it's by giving you a few minutes reading some of the positive ways we've been able to help others, or inspiring others to do a bit more, then that is what we will do.”