BRENT MUTUAL AID
ABOUT WILLESDEN GREEN MUTUAL AID
Willesden GreenTel: 07593 426959 / Email: willygmutualaid@gmail.com
DEFINITION : Mutual aid is “cooperation for the sake of the common good.”
It’s getting people to come together to meet each other’s needs, recognising that as humans, our survival is dependent on one another
In partnership with Sufra NW London (Sufra) and Pakistan Community Centre (PCC), MAFW is running a food bank every Tuesday to provide emergency food aid to local residents from the PCC. The MAFW team of volunteers believe that working with Sufra will build more structure and sustainability into what we created during lockdown and enable us to support people in the community long-term.Mutual Aid Food Willesden (MAFW), a food hub offering emergency food and essential aid locally. (www.mutualaidfoodwillesden.co.uk )
Mutual Aid Food Willesden has operated as a food hub and distribution centre five days a week since lockdown began, providing emergency food aid and other essentials to households and individuals across Brent. The current project is being run under the mutual aid umbrella for 23 weeks from 23 March 2020 to 28 August 2020 and is entirely run by unpaid volunteers. We draw volunteers from across Brent: MAFW started in Brent’s Mapesbury ward, expanded to Willesden Green, Dudden Hill and Dollis Hill and then Kensal Green. Subsequently volunteers have also come from further afield. The local Pakistan Community Centre (PCC) kindly offered the premises rent-free during this project and we provide regular aid to help around 500 people a week funded by LocalGiving donations and grants.
The partnership with Sufra and PCC means that MAFW will operate under the SUFRA umbrella, renting space from PCC in order to provide food and essential aid to local walk-in residents once a week from September 2020.
Pakistan Community Centre (PCC), Pakistan Welfare Association. Registered charity no: 1088884
Sufra NW London (Registered Charity No. 1151911) is a Community Hub that provides a lifeline to people in crisis – including families living in extreme poverty and people who are vulnerable, homeless or socially isolated. We provide them with the food and support they need to survive, empower them to learn new skills and improve their wellbeing, and help them to find work and become financially stable. Our core work focuses on providing emergency food aid through our Food Bank and Community Kitchen, but these are gateway services that enable our service users (we call them guests) to access a wider range of services and activities designed to address the root causes of poverty and homelessness. To find out more about the Food Bank and the wide range of additional services we provide, please visit: https://www.sufra-nwlondon.org.uk/.