Northampton Muslim community comes together to serve up 120 free meals for hospital staff

Healthcare staff at Northampton General Hospital enjoyed a free hot meal on Thursday after a fundraising effort by the town's Muslim community.

More than 150 free meals from the Shajahan restaurant in Kingsthorpe were paid for by the town's Muslim community who raised over £500 between them.

The banquet of hot curries were delivered to Northampton General Hospital on Thursday evening (May 7) for healthcare staff to enjoy.

Northampton resident Mohammed Rahman helped organise the collection with the community to mark one of the traditions of Ramadan that has been put on hold by the coronavirus outbreak.

He said: "Every night during Ramadan a family will cook a meal to serve at the mosque. It's open for anyone to come in and enjoy it. It brings people together - but that obviously hasn't been able to happen this year.

"Thankfully, many of us are still able to enjoy a meal with our families but we thought of NHS staff working long hours who have to eat at the hospital. We wanted to help."

Working together, Mohammed and more than 20 other residents from across Northampton's Muslim community raised £530 and arranged for the Shajahan restaurant to cook up a feast for the hospital's staff.

The fundraising was able to pay for 130 meals, which the chefs at Shajahan topped up to 150 meals at no extra charge.

Mohammed said: "We had a table set up at the hospital for staff to enjoy, but we asked NGH if they would make sure the staff on the Covid-19 wards would be allowed to eat first.

"Thank you to everyone who donated and made it possible, and to Shajahan for being so generous to prepare the food."

Over 120 meals were served at the hospital, while the remaining 30 meals were donated to the Oasis House.