British Prime Minister Borris Johnson has honoured the ‘One Million Meals’ campaign founded by four Pakistanis through the ‘Points of Light Award’ for their extraordinary services for the National Health Services (NHS), key workers, homeless and people in need in the United Kingdom.
Bilal Bin Saqib, Momin Saqib, Raja Suleman Raza and Muhammad Arif Anis launched the ‘One Million Meals’ campaign during the lockdown in 2020, which has managed over 100,000 meals for the National Health Service and key workers, the homeless, and people in need. The ‘Points of Light’ are outstanding individual volunteers, who are making a change in their community.
First established by President George H W. Bush in 1990, UK Points of Light was developed in partnership with the US programme and launched in the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street in April 2014. Since then, hundreds of people have been named Points of Light by the British Prime Minister, highlighting an enormous array of innovative and inspirational volunteering across the length and breadth of Britain.
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The campaign received support from sporting stars such as former footballer David Beckham and boxer Amir Khan, and inspired hundreds of volunteers to help with communications and deliveries, and local companies who donated food and healthy drinks.
Operating in more than 200 locations through 47 hospitals, trusts and food banks, the initiative aims to continue providing nutritious meals whilst the nation recovers from COVID-19.
Raja Suleman Raza, who is also chief executive of a restaurant chain that initiated the donations to the ‘One Million Meals’ campaign, said that “It is an absolute honour for me to be recognised for the Points of Light Award by the prime minister for our efforts during this pandemic. This award means a lot to me, I intend to continue serving the vulnerable communities around us who are further exposed to larger risk due to this pandemic and require our support more than ever before”.