Leeds charity Give a Gift feeling pressure with demand for help during cost of living crisis exceeding Covid-19 pandemic levels

When Covid-19 reached the United Kingdom, Harehills charity Give a Gift became an emergency food provider.

The pandemic brought about new challenges and the charity worked to provide food packs that were bespoke and catered for the diverse nature of the local community.

Unbeknownst to them, a new crisis was lurking round the corner and with the country in the grip of a cost-of-living crisis, demand for food has soared.

Co-founder and director Rifhat Malik MBE said: “Since Covid, we've been providing food provision and to be honest, we're in a far worse position than we were during Covid in that we are busy, getting calls left, right and centre, it's crazy with the cost of living crisis.

"You just don't want to see them suffer. You don't want to see them go hungry.

"People are saying they've used all their money to pay their rent, pay their bills, they have no money for the food. It's a luxury to have pizza."

Give a Gift are based on Roundhay Road in Harehills and are led by Rifhat and her husband, Hanfit Malik OBE.

Rifhat has accumulated a wealth of experience having helped to open the charity back in 2013, but the emotional toll of seeing others struggle remains a heavy one.

She explained: "Last Friday, a working-class family on state benefits had rang around a few places and were referred to us.

"It was an out-of-hours call and she said 'my benefits don't come in until the back end of next week, it's me, my husband and my children and we have no food whatsoever'.

"I said she couldn’t wait. I left my house, went to the office, made the food pack. We're so busy, it's unbelievable.

"I met the mum and I gave her the food and gave her a voucher for more food.

"She was shocked when she saw the voucher, she asked 'is that for me?' and I said 'yes, so you can get extra things like meat, vegetables and fruit'.

"She was in tears. It's so hard for us to hold that emotion back.”

Rifhat also remembers another occasion when during a toy delivery to a local primary school, she saw a pupil with shoes being held together by sellotape.

She said: "You do have to try and develop a thick skin but it's so hard.

"When the team went across and gave them the toys, One child really stood out because his shoes were sellotaped together because the sole had come off.

“I was speaking at a conference recently and spoke about some case studies and I broke down speaking, I couldn't help it.”

The charity offers an array of services, including support in overcoming language barriers, accommodation searches, and training and volunteering opportunities.

However, it is their emergency food and clothing vouchers which people have been in urgent need of amid the cost of living crisis.

One of the key focuses for the Give a Gift team is ensuring emergency food packages are appropriate for different dietary needs, which can often vary due to culture and religion.

Rifhat explained: “Because we've got such a diverse community, we became the cultural food hub in that we're providing culturally appropriate food from the BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) community."

Rifhat and her husband have previously volunteered for international relief agency Islamic Relief Worldwide and Rifhat sees parallels between disasters that have happened overseas to what is happening in the UK.

She said: "Me and my husband have been overseas when there’s been natural disasters, like earthquakes and floods. That’s a humanitarian crisis.

"Never in a million years did I think we would have a humanitarian crisis in the UK.”