Beckham endorses British Pakistanis’ initiative to feed workers fighting COVID-19

Three social entrepreneurs are campaigning to donate one million free meals to NHS staff and key workers across UK

Star footballer and British celebrity David Beckham has endorsed “One Million Meal”, an initiative of three social entrepreneurs of Pakistani origin who are campaigning to donate one million free meals to National Health Service (NHS) staff and key workers fighting COVID-19 across the United Kingdom.

“@onemillionmeals is doing great work on getting nutritious and healthy meals to key-workers and healthcare staff,” he said in a message on Tuesday.

The campaign is garnering support from the leading British politicians, celebrities, corporate institutions and mainstream British media.



The initiative aims to provide key workers like NHS workers, police, school staff and firefighters with free, nutritious food during the COVID-19 crisis while raising funds through the general public and collaborating with food platforms, food chains and restaurants all over the UK.

The all-volunteer team identifies demand from essential workplaces, and then arranges deliveries from participating restaurants to these workplaces. Each meal costs no more than £5 to provide and must be nutritious.

In less than a week, One Million Meals has already provided more than 4,000 meals to key workers at various agencies and institutions, including staff at Croydon Metropolitan Police, Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford, Whipps Cross Hospital, Croydon University Hospital in London, Luton & Dunstable Hospital, Savernake Community Hospital in Marlborough and food banks in Southend-On-Sea.



The campaign was initiated by three social entrepreneurs – Bilal Bin Saqib, an LSE alumni, and Forbes 30 Under 30; Suleman Raza, an award winning chef and food-entrepreneur; and Arif Anis, corporate thought leader, writer, speaker and author of I'MPOSSIBLE.

The volunteer team has grown from three members to 13, overseen by an advisory board operating through Zoom and online platforms.

The initiative is particularly helping isolated community hospitals like Savernake Hospital in Wiltshire that reached out to the team, saying they would need daily meals as the local pub feeding them earlier had closed down while no canteen was open and the staff was unable to leave during the shifts.

Arif Anis, the initiative's co-founder said: “We decided to call our initiative One Million Meals to set ourselves, and the public, an ambitious but essential goal.  Our heroes in the NHS and on the front lines deserve a good, hot meal after a day of exhausting and dangerous work fighting the pandemic. Everyone has their part to play in this crisis; we might not be able to save lives ourselves, but we can provide our life-savers with the fuel they need to beat this pandemic.”



Suleman Raza said, “We are signing up restaurants, food businesses and food platforms as the demand is coming from all over the UK so we are setting up local partnerships to reach all the corners. We don't want to refuse any demand and that is where we need more hands to join us throughout the UK including corporate backers. It is heartening that Pakistani restaurants and businesses are generously joining the campaign.”

Bilal Bin Saqib, in his message, said: “So far, One Million Meals has been relying on our team’s resources and the amazing generosity of our sponsors to provide meals to key workers and frontline staff. We have now had over 25 hospitals express their interest in our services. However, to meet our increasing demand, we are reaching out to the public to donate to the campaign to help us bring food to the people keeping them safe and healthy.”

One Million Meals has currently raised over £12,000 of its initial £50,000 target in three days through a GoFundMe fundraiser. 100% of the money raised goes towards providing meals to key workers and frontline staff, and the initiative is overseen by a voluntary advisory board to provide oversight and maximise impact.

Public and businesses are encouraged to donate generously to GoFundMe fundraiser here.