Posted:
Wednesday - August 24, 2022
5:53 pm
The UK Islamic Mission (UKIM) started in 1962 and is an international charity working to deliver relief across the world. The organisation works on projects involving water, education, food, healthcare and disaster management. All its services are delivered by volunteers – the only paid employees are ones who are working in the charity’s mosques and schools. More recently, UKIM started their UK base under the name of iCare. There is a head office in London and the charity acts throughout England, Wales and Scotland. There are 17 branches of iCare in the Midlands alone. Each branch has at least 5 volunteers, with the largest having 50.
As iCare, the charity operate Food Hubs - they call their branches Food Hubs rather than Food Banks, as they provide more support than simply food. This includes help with healthcare and for those with issues surrounding homelessness or being a refugee. The organisation also provides education and recently started a project to support local orphans.
UKIM set up the Midlands structure in 2017. They were looking for a simple way to get inexpensive food and share it with those in need. At the time there were two choices, one was FareShare Midlands and the charity picked FareShare because it was so accessible and offered an easy approach. iCare does sometimes buy food from local stores like Aldi and also receives donations from local schools, churches, businesses and individuals. The iCare Food Hub provides two different types of food support. The main one is food parcels including for families entitled to free school meals over the Summer school holidays. On average each person receives 22kg of food per month, including staples such as pasta, biscuits, rice and oil. From each branch that is the delivery of approximately the equivalent of 150 meals per week, or a total of 550kg food per branch (ie 6 tonnes across the Midlands).
Rajaa said “I am a Palestinian lady who is living alone with several medical problems which make being out alone for shopping or any other things so hard. iCare Sparkbrook Food Hub were so kind with me, and helpful with me. I am so grateful for the food parcel they delivered every month for me. May All bless each one working there to help others.”
In addition the charity has started meal production. iCare Food Hubs across the region are now offering hot meals for beneficiaries, with the Peterborough branch providing 150 hot meals per week. The meals are cooked in-house by the volunteers and iCare are planning to extend the project, to provide better support and reach even more vulnerable individuals and families. Furthermore, 4 years ago, iCare started the yearly initiative ‘Share My Qurbani’. Qurbani means sacrifice - every year during the Islamic month of Dhul Hijjah, Muslims around the world slaughter an animal – a goat, sheep, cow or camel - and share the meat with people in need. For the first time this year iCare Sparkbrook took part and distributed 4 tonnes of meat through the Food Hub.
iCare helps a wide variety of members of the local community who are struggling including families, people who are homeless or have problems with drugs or alcohol, refugees, individuals suffering with mental health issues, and those who are on a low income. In addition, iCare Sparkbrook regularly serves the NHS Children’s Hospital Birmingham. Support is also delivered in non-food related ways, such as the delivery of winter kits for rough sleepers around Birmingham.
Over the last couple of years, destitution and poverty has continued to increase, while people who are homeless or on a low income are struggling to manage their weekly shop. The two main reasons for people being put into this situation have been the global COVID19 pandemic disaster and delays or changes to benefits, in particular Universal Credit (in some cases iCare has supported people who have not received benefits for many weeks). Furthermore, inflation continues to exceed wage increases, forcing more people into food poverty. Other reasons people use the Food Hub include debt, domestic violence, no resource to public funds and sickness. Mudassar Baseer, in charge of the iCare Midlands Zone, said “FareShare Midlands provides us with a massive saving. We have 17 branches across the Midlands, with 10 receiving food from FareShare Midlands. While local people do donate food, basically our main supplier is FareShare Midlands. Each branch has a monthly delivery, with the highest amount we receive being 325kg and the lowest 80kg. If FareShare Midlands wasn’t there, it would be very difficult for us to provide that amount of food to people on a regular basis.
Poverty is going up and as a charity we need to do more to make sure people are not suffering from food poverty. Thank you FareShare for supporting us to help make sure people aren’t going to sleep hungry. Thank you for providing such a good service and for being so cooperative as well”.
