As our Muslim friends and supporters break their 18-hour fast every evening during Ramadan and sit down with their families to enjoy a traditional ‘iftar’ meal, let’s all give what we can to help feed those experiencing hunger and poverty all year round.

Many of the families that visit our Food Bank are forced to survive on just one meal a day - and demand for the Food Bank is on the rise.

But we are struggling to meet demand and keep our shelves stocked with the food people need to survive.

For Sufra’s Ramadan Appeal 2019, we need to raise £20,000 to feed vulnerable families and help lift them out of poverty. By supporting the campaign, you too can be to BE PART OF THE SOLUTION to poverty.

Click here to make a donation this Ramadan.

Sufra NW London is more than a Food Bank. Your donations will ensure that we can provide emergency food parcels AND ensure that families get long-term support so they don’t become dependent on food aid – such as by helping them find paid work.

Last year, Sufra:

• Distributed 9,100 individual food parcels in our Food Bank
• Served 2,000 three-course meals during Community Kitchen
• Redistributed more than 200 tonnes of food
• Supported more than 70 newly arrived refugee families
• Addressed benefits, housing and welfare problems 345 times
• Provided 168 people with AQA qualifications, skills and experience

Together, we can achieve even more this year.

To keep up to date with our #BePartOfTheSolutionRamadan Appeal 2019, please follow us on our social media platforms and share the updates we post every day this month.

Click on these links to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

There are many other ways you can Be Part of the Solution this Ramadan:

1. Encourage your children to get into the habit of giving regularly to charity, by downloading a copy of our Ramadan Giving Calendar. For more information, click here.
2. Support needy individuals and families by donating your zakat to Sufra NW London. All zakat funds are restricted to providing emergency aid (including food, clothing and hostel accommodation) for poor families in the local community. For more information, click here.
3. Attend our Ramadan Evening for Refugees for a special film screening and to hear the stories of refugee families who have been forced to flee conflict in their homeland and build a new life in the UK. Click here or see below for more information.
4. Organise a food collection at your local mosque, school or workplace this Ramadan and help to fill up the Food Bank. For more information, click here.

Uncle Jim’s First Ever Ramadan Fast:

Jim, our Community Garden Manager, is a typical Irishman: of Catholic persuasion, charming and always telling politically incorrect jokes.

But he’s very serious about encouraging people to grow fresh fruit and vegetables – especially given that 47% of children in Stonebridge (where Sufra is based) grow up in poverty and are far less likely to eat a healthy balanced diet than those that grow up in, say, Chelsea.

So, Jim approached me with a “cracking” idea. He said he would fast over Ramadan to raise money to buy more seeds, plants and soil for St. Raphael’s Edible Garden.

His Master Plan? To supply Food Bank guests with tonnes of extra fresh fruit and veg this summer and autumn. Apparently, one apple tree can provide 2,500 apples a year. That’s a lot of 5-a-days.

He’s a brave man is our Jim – always up for a challenge. His only condition was that he can drink some water if he gets really thirsty (which I am assured is forgivable, especially since he’s not actually Muslim).

But Jim will need your help to keep going.

Unless enough people sponsor him, he’ll lose faith and end up going to McDonalds for lunch.

Again.

Please click here to Keep Jim fasting and help him raise £3000 to grow more fruit and veg for our Food Bank.

From Syria, With Love – Ramadan Film Screening and Iftar

There are only two weeks left before Sufra’s Film Screening and Iftar Evening for Refugees – and tickets are selling like hot falafel.

Not only will we be screening the award-winning film After Spring, but you will also hear first-hand testimonies of families we support through our Refugee Resettlement Programme.

Most importantly for Ibrahim, our always hungry Refugee Resettlement Officer, we will then enjoy a delicious ‘iftar’ – a traditional sunset meal to break the all-day fast that Syrian families and our Muslim friends observe during Ramadan.

This event is open to people of all (and no)faiths– so do come along if you want to understand more about the plight of Syrian Refugees (and actually eat some hot falafel).

Tickets are only £20 and available here.

#RefugeesWelcome

Ramadan Mubarak to all our Muslim friends and supporters