DIONE SAYS

‘Ihave always been active within our community by helping neighbours with shopping deliveries and picking up pharmacy prescriptions. Before Covid-19, my husband and I organised a street party to encourage the community to come out and meet one another. I also set up a local “friendly phone calls” initiative to connect people who were feeling isolated.

Then, in March 2020, during the first lockdown, my local councillor got in contact to discuss how we might help provide food for local residents in need. He said we could use Pakistan Community Centre as our base and asked the local Mutual Aid groups to help and ask for donations. We quickly put in place a core team of volunteers, and the project evolved rapidly. We soon had 200+ volunteers helping out at the centre and were sending out 400+ food parcels a week.

It was only meant to be a temporary facility, but we saw that a permanent food bank was needed. In September 2020, we decided to partner with the charity Sufra and, to date, we have helped over 15,000 people and sent out over 6,000 food parcels.

PART OF A TEAM

There is so much work, planning and administration that goes on behind the scenes at the food bank and the things that need doing change on a weekly basis. Usually, if someone is struggling and needs food aid, it’s because they need other support, too, so the centre has become a community hub and safe space where people can ask for help.

Every day I am touched by the kindness of people; our volunteers are just incredible. I want to show my young daughters how important it is to look after one another and be kind.’

• To donate to Dione’s Mutual Aid Group in Willesden, visit localgiving. org/appeal/feedthecommunitree