Aishah's Food Charity
News
BSU student founds her own charity to help her local community
Wednesday, 12 February, 2025When third year BA (Hons) Law student Aishah Ahmed saw people in her community struggling with food insecurity, she decided to take action – not by donating to charity, but by starting her own.
Aishah’s Food Charity is a local hot meal food bank supporting people in Weston-super-Mare and the surrounding area who are struggling with food insecurity. The charity also provides hot food to the homeless, homeless shelters, family centres and other organisations who support food insecurity initiatives.
Aishah set up the charity in March 2022, and it became an official registered charity in October 2023. Talking about why she decided to start the charity, Aishah said:
“I started Aishah's Food Charity after seeing how much Covid-19 and the rising cost-of-living affected people with their day to day lives and being unable to afford food for themselves and their families. My father has an Indian takeaway called Pappadoms in Weston-super-Mare, and I asked him to help me start a charity to help people with food. He cooks and provides me with the food to give to our local community.”
It was challenging at first, mainly because people weren’t aware of the charity, and many meals were cooked that unfortunately didn’t get eaten. But with support from other local food banks and organisations, the word eventually got out. Now every week, Aishah’s Food Charity hands out 200 hot meals of curry and rice from their local distribution site and by volunteers in Weston-super-Mare city centre.
In addition to the hot meals, Aisha’s Food Charity also collects food from local supermarkets that would otherwise be thrown away and delivers it to people who can’t travel to the charity’s distribution site.
Aishah’s Food Charity is mostly self-funded by Aishah’s family, with support from local donations and small grants to help fund the work. She also credits her father, who has been doing charity work since 1998, as the inspiration for her altruistic side, and her experience at university for giving her the confidence to strike out on her own.
Starting the charity has been a wonderful way for Aishah to give back to her community and also serves as an important reminder that despite outward appearances, anyone and everyone can benefit from a helping hand.
Aishah said:
“I've learned that not everything is as it seems. People are struggling and sometimes feel ashamed to ask for help. I talk to all my service users and let them know that it's OK to ask for help. This is important to me because the whole reason I started the charity was to help people.”
While a kind heart and a willingness to help are important traits for anyone wanting to make a difference, Aishah said tenacity is equally important. She offered this bit of advice for anyone else who may want to follow in her footsteps:
“If you're passionate about wanting to do something such as starting a charity, then it is possible and don't give up. It is never easy in the beginning, but if you keep trying, you will get there. The beginning was the hardest for me – having to register as a charity, trying to find funding – but with the help of my family it was possible, and it is doing extremely well because I didn’t give up.”
Aishah and her family will appear on BBC Points West on Wednesday 12 February to talk more about Aisha’s Food Charity.
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