It was March 2020 when Westerhope Premier retailer, Sheraz Awan (left) was first prompted to help his community by giving them free food. As he recalls, “A lady walked away from the store saying her two kids were going hungry to bed. I asked the reason - I thought this was some type of a punishment. But she’d got no food in the house and that’s why the kids were going to bed hungry.”
This lead to what became something of a mission for Sheraz and his store. As documented regularly on his TikTok page (@westerhopeconvenience), the next four years were spent purchasing bread and more to be left outside of his store for the local community to help themselves to.
As time went on, Sheraz saw the demand grow. Others began to notice, and in 2023 he was even featured on Ant & Dec’s popular Saturday Night Takeaway programme. “They gave me four places on a plane for free tickets to Florida because of my - they call it charity work. I don’t call it charity work because I’m not a registered charity. Nobody helps me. All this money comes from my pocket or my shop’s pocket.” The picture of Sheraz above is from when he bumped into Ant McPartlin some time after the show aired - and he remembered the retailer and his work.
Amazingly, Sheraz uses his own funds to source the food he gives away. “I purchase it from supermarkets, the cash and carry and wholesalers. I wish we got donations! We wouldn’t be able to find those funds. Nobody helps, unfortunately…”
Sheraz adds that many of the people who use his service are elderly, or young families, and that he even spent £400 for one family who had never had a Sunday lunch. But does the constant need from his community ever get him down?
“I get very, very upset and sometimes, it’s just on your mind and I get depressed about it. If every shopkeeper was doing what I do I don’t think we would have a food or starvation problem or anything like that. Nobody would go without food. If every shopkeeper did what I did.”
By talking publicly about his work, Sheraz is hoping any suppliers, manufacturers or brands might be able to help him.
“I’d like to reach out to see if there are any manufacturers or wholesalers giving anything away, for free or cheap,” Sheraz says. “I know companies throw good stock away when the labels change or the pricemark goes up for instance – they’ll throw thousands and thousands of good items away. I’ll happily take that off them and give it away free. It’s excellent PR for them. Anybody willing to help, please reach out to me.”
Anyone wishing to help can contact Sheraz via his LinkedIn page, or via Tiktok, or even by messaging Convenience Store directly.
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