Bradford's Khidmat Centre helping families during Ramadan

Over the last few weeks, Khidmat Community Centre, in BD7, have been helping the asylum seeker and refugee communities break their fast with tasty Iftars.

Twice a week 60 families of all different cultures are catered for by a special team of volunteers cooking three course meals from chickpea salads to meat pasta to rice and Dal.

Five people are socially distanced in the kitchen preparing the food, then three or four driver's deliver the packages at around 6pm ready for when the sun goes down a couple of hours later.

National Coordinator at the Khidmat centres, Sofia Buncy said: "Some asylum seekers and people in the refugee community have been suffering with food poverty.

"We used to do an Iftar in Bradford Central Mosque and we did that for five years but because of the pandemic we cannot gather.

"There are so many diverse communities; like Sudanese and Somali. They would come to the mosque; pray and then eat there as well.

"In Ramadan, we would do one day a week or there would be special events for them. It wasn’t just about the food, these communities are really dispersed up and down Bradford, so it was a way of bringing the communities together.

"Last year, Covid stopped that, and people were feeling really disconnected so we did Iftars at home via door step deliveries. We have continued that this year."

PC James from the Bradford Community Engagement Team was at the centre helping out last week

The Khidmat Centre thanks the Inspire Futures Foundation, the Sudanese community in Bradford and the various community volunteers.

Sofia added: "We had a youth kitchen once where young people ran it for the day. We try change it up, so people get an opportunity to serve. It is nice to see people are passionate about helping other people.

"Some people from the local community see what we are doing and donate food to do their bit. That is really heart-warming because it shows people are invested in local causes.

"We have built this up over five years, it does not come overnight. You have got to be hands-on and lead by example. We are really lucky we have got."