Call centre staff feed homeless in Preston

Staff from Hinduja Global Solutions call centre in Preston organised a Feed the Homeless event in the Flag Market to coincide with Ramadan.
Pictured serving out food are L-R: Famida Member, Jenna Atkins and Shifa Patel. PIC BY ROB LOCK
30-6-2016 — Staff from Hinduja Global Solutions call centre in Preston organised a Feed the Homeless event in the Flag Market to coincide with Ramadan. Pictured serving out food are L-R: Famida Member, Jenna Atkins and Shifa Patel. PIC BY ROB LOCK 30-6-2016

The special evening, planned to coincide with Ramadan, was organised by staff from a city call centre.

It saw food donated by restaurants and takeaways from across Preston, and, despite torrential rain, leaders said it went “really well”.

Shifa Patel and Famida Member, who work in human resources for Hinduja Global Solutions UK Ltd in Tulketh Mill, did most of the organising, and said at least 30 people joined in.

Shifa said: “We got some chicken and rice from Nando’s, we got some pizza from takeaways, we had pasta, someone from work made lasagne and it was gone within seconds.

“We had sandwiches, crisps, chocolates, desserts, we had lots of cans and drinks.

“We made goodie bags - we ran out because so many people turned up - so we went and made up more.” The goodie bags included toiletries, crisps, chocolate, cereal bars and drinks, and tins were sent to the homeless shelter.

Organisers collected more than £240 in donations, which they spent on supplies for the event from the supermarket.

It ran from about 7pm on Thursday, and Shifa said: “It went really, really well.

“We ended up staying there, and we broke our fast there too at 9.49pm. We want to continue doing something on a smaller scale like this through our company.”