Celebrating Five Years of the Open Kitchen
Alhamdulillah, we are delighted to celebrate the five-year anniversary of The Open Kitchen! We opened our first community kitchen in Hounslow, London on the 8th of December 2018. Since then, we have set up a second location in Nottingham, serving the community where Muslim Hands was born 30 years ago.
With your support, The Open Kitchens have been able to open their doors and welcome in rough sleepers, low-income families and refugees, seven days a week. Over the past five years, they have collectively served over 530,000 free, nutritious hot meals daily, ma sha Allah. They also offer vulnerable people other support, including providing sleeping bags, winter essentials and household items.
Adam, his wife Kelly and their son are regular visitors to The Open Kitchen. After being made homeless, for 3 months they have been living in different hotels.
‘I’ve got a roof over my head and I’ve got a locked door between me and the outside world. There is a hell of a lot of people out there that haven’t even got that. They can’t store food for later on in the week, they have to eat day-to-day – and it just doesn’t work. The amount of homeless people around the city centre has got a lot, lot worse over the past few years. People are starving.’
Like so many others struggling due to the cost-of-living crisis, Adam’s family have been received with warm smiles and open arms at our community kitchen.
As we celebrate five years of The Open Kitchen, we want to say a massive thank you to all of our donors, volunteers and colleagues who are serving those in need on our very own doorstep. JazakumAllahu khairan - may Allah (swt) increase you in goodness!
Ehsan Choudhury manages The Open Kitchen in Hounslow, West London. He is incredibly proud and grateful for all the support you have shown to this grassroots project:
‘Praise be to Allah (swt) that He has enabled The Open Kitchen to provide half a million meals to people from all walks of life. I’m proud of our joint commitment to persevere during these turbulent times, and grateful to the community, volunteers and donors. We will continue to do our small part in bettering our world, in sha Allah.’
Since it opened in 2021, The Open Kitchen in Nottingham has become an increasingly important part of the local community. Imran Khan has been managing the project for the past two years:
‘It is so sad to hear that so many people don’t have sufficient funds to live a stable life. The government needs to do more to help people who are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. Despite this, I am so pleased with how the nation has supported Muslim Hands to feed over half a million people who otherwise would not have had a hot meal, clean water and other essential food items daily. I would like to congratulate the donors, local businesses that support this project and all the staff at Muslim Hands for making this possible. Thank you and God bless.’
In the UK, 9.7 million adults are currently experiencing food insecurity. You can be a help us keep this wonderful initiative going to support our neighbours. Just £35 can provide 10 hot nutritious meals for those with nowhere else to go. Join us in fighting hunger and poverty here in the UK.
