Duria Awale, Food Bank

Hi my name is Duria Awale, and I am part of the Islamic Society at Kingston University. At the start of the academic year the Islamic Society (ISoc) and I wanted to do something to help those less fortunate in the community, and we thought who better to help than the many homeless people in the Kingston area. At first we thought that we could just go around and feed the homeless, but after seeking advice from Sarah Dutton (Volunteering Project Design and Development Coordinator) we saw that it was not a feasible option. What we decided to do was to collect food items at the university to then donate to the Kaleidoscope hostel in Kingston.

In order for students on campus to donate they had to know about the project first, so the first step we took was to create a poster, which would have all the information about the collection points and create awareness on campus. This proved to be a success as we were able to collect £200 worth of food. The next step was to contact the Kaleidoscope Project to arrange a day where we could drop off all the food, when I first contacted them they were overjoyed that we were donating large amounts of food and they said the people living in the hostel would be also.

Dropping the food off:

The day of the drop off, seven Islamic Society volunteers and I filled up two cars with the food and took the 5 minute drive to the hostel. Sarah and Steve (Volunteering) joined us to give the food to the staff there; they were overjoyed with the amount of food we had brought. We also had the opportunity to speak to some of the users of the charity, who were very friendly and seemed like they were slightly taken aback by the fact that we had the initiative of assisting their community.

The Islamic Society and I share the belief that philanthropy is an important aspect in society and without this there will be no support for the less fortunate.