Amid expectations of harsh winter months due to rising prices, a British Islamic charity is donating hundreds of food packs to students in the UK, as they plan to feed more students across the October half-term, and Christmas holidays.
Penny Appeal launched the Holiday Hunger program several years ago and has been serving food bags, which include meat packs, non-perishable food items to thousands of children.
The Wakefield-based charity donated the meals to children in Yorkshire and Humberside, the Northwest, West Midlands, and East and West London, during the school holidays.
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“We have been working with Penny Appeal for a while now and the work it is doing regarding tackling holiday hunger is very important,” said Mohammed Azum, head of Carlton Bolling, a secondary school in Bradford, Great British Entrepreneur Awards reported.
“Initially we were getting 20 to 30 food parcels and now we’re getting 50 to 60.
“It’s a really difficult time for families, especially with inflation and because we have such a strong relationship with parents, and they trust us we are able to support them. We are really grateful for the food parcels. It makes a huge difference.”
Harsh Winter
Researchers have estimated that more than 1 million more people will face poverty this winter, pushing UK deprivation levels to its highest level in two decades.
To help the vulnerable, more donations will be needed.
“This is just not good enough, the Government needs to be pre-empting the impact holiday hunger will have on the lives of millions of children, and act accordingly,” Penny Appeal founder Adeem Younis, said.
“I am astounded at how reliant this country has become on the charity sector regarding an issue as extreme as this one. In today’s day and age, the thought of parents going without food so they can feed their children is just absurd.
“It has now become the norm that as a charity we find ourselves not only feeding starving children in the poorest countries in the world but also here in the UK too.”
Set up in 2009, Penny Appeal has been providing poverty relief across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa by offering water solutions, organizing mass feedings, supporting orphan care and providing emergency food and medical aid.
Since then, they have transformed lives and empowered communities around the world, helping to break the poverty cycle and build brighter futures.