‘We are all part of one community’

AFTER seeing the struggles during the pandemic and now the rising living costs, the Muslim community came together to collect food and donate it to the local foodbanks.

During the pandemic, Iftekhar Yaqub from the Dundee Islamic Society saw the wider Dundee community struggling to source and buy food.

This inspired the 37-year-old to carry out a food collection in Ramadan at Dundee Central Mosque, and donate it to local foodbanks.

Iftekhar said: “When things were getting hard to get and it was a time of need for the whole country, we saw everyone doing their bit.

“As Muslims, we got together and we decided to do our bit for our city with this foodbank collection.”

After seeing the success and positive feedback, Iftekhar decided to keep the project going even after the pandemic had eased.

With living costs increasing, he saw the collection was required this year more now than ever.

The Muslim community has come together for the third year to collect and donate to the foodbanks.

Iftekhar said: “This year is needed now more than ever with rising energy bills, food prices going up.

“The need of foodbanks is going to be even greater in the near future.

“On behalf of Dundee Central Mosque and the Muslim community, we wanted to do our part to help wherever we can.”

Bringing together Muslims from across Dundee, the collection over the last week gathered a range of items including biscuits, tea, sugar, coffee, pasta, tins of mixed veg, beans, cereals and soups.

Completing the collection yesterday, Iftekhar organised a van to have the food delivered to local foodbanks Dundee and Angus Foodbank and Taught By Muhammad.

He hopes that projects like this will show the Dundee Muslim community in a positive light, and allow people to see how much they care.

He said: “We hope to show that we stand shoulder to shoulder and we are all part of one community.

“We are all in this together and we want to create unity and love in our city.”

Due to the local foodbanks already doing an excellent job throughout the year, Iftekhar has said that at the moment the collection will remain a yearly project during Ramadan.

He said: “We do this as an extra activity for ourselves.

“If in the future Dundee Central Mosque ever had their own foodbank, then we would consider doing it all year round.

“But until they have that, it is best that we liaise with partners and do this project.”