Birmingham Mosque set up a permanent food bank to help homeless

A soup kitchen that was installed temporarily over the the 2015 Christmas and New Year season has now become a permanent installation at Birmingham Mosque in the UK.

Birmingham has one of the worst rates for homelessness in the country with an estimated 2,500 people either homeless or living in temporary accommodation. It took £2,000 and 15 volunteers to run the soup kitchen during the holiday week, when most charities and foundations were closed.

Sponsorship from a local chartiy, the Anzal Begum Foundation, the mosque has now acquired a permanent Port-a-Cabin from which they can run a soup kitchen all year round.

After Christmas, the Birmingham-based foundation, set up by Begum's family in the memory of her visionary local activism alleviating poverty, got in touch to ask how they could help. The mosque committee decided they needed a unit for storing food products and a place where people would feel comfortable, and hit on the idea of a Port-A-Cabin in the grounds.

The permanent goods and food bank was officially opened on Thursday with a ribbon cutting from Lord Mayor Carl Rice.