Weston woman wins British Citizen Award for creating food bank

A young woman has won a British Citizen Award for creating her own food bank.

Aishah Ahmed from Weston-super-Mare built her own charity with studying for a law degree, which she has now completed.

Aishah’s Food Charity was created after Miss Ahmed, 21, spent her childhood with her father who would give out free meals to those who needed them, from his restaurant.

She said: “When I was five years old I would see [my dad] doing all of the work and I would say to him ‘let me help you’.”

“He instilled it into us as we’ve grown up,” she added.

In 2015 Miss Ahmed began to help people by herself and support for her work grew by word of mouth.

In October 2023, Aishah’s Food Charity was officially launched after the Covid pandemic, as a hot meal food bank.

“I saw the struggle from lockdown and the rising of the cost of living and I said to myself I’ve got to do something,” she said.

Every Wednesday Miss Ahmed works at her charity, on Walliscote Road in Weston-super-Mare, and it is also ran by volunteers on Sundays.

Miss Ahmed’s father and brother do all of the cooking and her mother and sister and her take the food to site, package it, and hand it out to people.

As well as this, the charity reached out to various supermarkets including Lidl, Aldi, Sainsbury’s and Asda who provide food for them to donate.

“It makes me feel good – The whole reason I do it is because I want those who are less fortunate to have things they want.”

The charity has also branched out by now donating items like sleeping bags and tents and bed sheets.

“It means everything to me this charity, it really does” she said.