The House of Shah will be opening shop an hour early between 3pm-4pm handing out food parcels of tins, dried pasta, tea, rice and biscuits.
Manager Joe Shah praises local food banks for the hard work they do in the area but spotted a gap in their current opening hours, deciding to create his own makeshift food dispensary from the curry house to help those in need in the late afternoons.
Mr Shah’s idea comes from his love for charity work and helping others and says anyone in need of support is welcome to drop into the Quarry Street eatery with no questions asked.
The Hamilton hero opened his doors on Christmas day to those in the area who needed a hand to get through the festivities and said this is something he will be doing on a daily basis going forward. He states “At House of Shah we believe in helping others, this is a community”.
The takeaway boss has welcomed the generosity from his customers and has ambitious plans to establish his own charity to help eradicate homelessness and poverty in the area.
South Lanarkshire Councillor Bert Thompson commends the takeaway and said: “I would like to see other businesses follow their lead. Community involvement should always be welcome.”
The local politician also stated: “It is sad and it is a disgrace that a wealthy country should have people depending on food banks. In other countries benefits reflect the true needs of people. Decent realistic benefits should be compulsory.”
The Trussell Trust, a charity who aims to end hunger and poverty in the UK, distributed 210,605 emergency three day food parcels in Scotland alone last year.
Their end of year statistics show food bank use in their network increased by 73% in the last three years with reasons such as income not covering essential costs, benefit delays and benefit changes amongst the top three factors responsible for the rise.
Councillor Thompson highlights the need for younger and more vulnerable citizens to be better looked after from the government and raises the point of good education and a reasonable standard of literacy and numeracy is a must to end the poverty cycle.
In addition to good schooling the veteran Scottish Labour representative feels breakfast clubs are another good initiative in the local area as for some people he states “this is the only nourishment they get”.
He concludes by saying: “food banks should be supported by local councils and businesses. The real people who can solve deprivation are the government.”
Article with thanks to Correspondent: Jordan J. Tennant
