Food Parcels and Emergency Food Support

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• 4 January 2023
• BKM Community Editorial Team
• Campaign has ended
• New York, USA

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Access to food is the need we are asked about most often, and the one that rises fastest when a household loses income, a benefit payment is delayed, or an unexpected bill lands.

What This Appeal Does

It funds food parcels and essential groceries for families in Manchester who are going without. Parcels are put together with regard to what a family actually eats, and delivered discreetly.

How We Decide

Support is given on the basis of need. Nobody is asked to prove hardship in public or to explain themselves to a room of people. In many cases the families in the most difficulty are the ones who never come forward, so we also act on quiet referrals from within the community.

How to Help

Donations pay for food. Volunteers help with collection, packing and delivery, and the second is usually harder to find than the first.

Our article on the Muslim duty to the poor explains why this work sits at the centre of what a community owes its members.

How to Give

We arrange donations directly rather than through this website. To contribute to this appeal, or to ask how your donation will be used, please contact us:

Telephone: 07727 874307
Email: info@bkmcommunity.com
In person: 53 Hemmons Road, Manchester M12 5TW

You can also send us a message and we will get back to you.

BKM Community Group is a community organisation and is not currently registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales. Donations to us are not eligible for Gift Aid. How we are constituted and funded is set out on our About Us page.

What This Looks Like in Manchester

Hunger here is rarely visible. It looks like an adult skipping meals so the children eat, a heating bill paid instead of a food shop, or a household that runs out three days before payday every single month.

People in that position often do not describe themselves as needing a food parcel, and they very rarely ask. That is why most of the families we help were mentioned to us by somebody else.

What Goes Into a Parcel

Staples that keep and that people will actually use — flour, rice, lentils, oil, tea, tinned goods — alongside fresh items where we can. Everything is halal.

We ask about household size, allergies and dietary needs, and we try to send food a family recognises and knows how to cook rather than whatever happened to be donated.

Ramadan and Eid

Demand rises sharply in Ramadan, and again before Eid, when families who are managing feel the additional pressure of clothes and gifts for children. We plan for both.

If You Need One

Call and ask. You will not be asked to prove anything, you will not be lectured, and nobody in the community will be told. This happens to a great many households and there is no shame attached to it.

Zakat or Sadaqah?

If you are giving zakat, please say so when you contact us. Zakat has eight categories of eligible recipient set out in the Quran (9:60), cannot be spent on running costs, and we keep it separate and account for it separately. Sadaqah is not restricted in the same way.

If you are unsure which applies, read Understanding Zakat or Sadaqah: The Everyday Charity That Goes Beyond Zakat, or simply ask us.

Why There Is No Donate Button

We do not take card payments through this website. Every donation involves a conversation, which means you can ask exactly where the money is going and get a straight answer before you give anything. It is slower, and for an organisation of our size we think it is better.

Telephone 07727 874307 · Email info@bkmcommunity.com · 53 Hemmons Road, Manchester M12 5TW