
UK food charity chef tells of Ramadan challenge for refugees in Calais
A chef who is helping to feed hundreds of displaced people in Calais is adapting his menu to support refugees observing Ramadan.
Ben Cottam, from Exeter in south-west England, has been based in northern France for the last eight months cooking for Refugee Community Kitchen.
The charity, which was set up by four friends in 2015, has been serving 'nutritious food without judgment' to those fleeing war, poverty, persecution and climate change for a decade.
The food organisation, which operates both in London and northern France, distributes hundreds of meals a week and has won a number of prestigious awards, including the Observer Food Monthly's outstanding achievement award.
Mr Cottam, 36, whose career has varied from working at private members' clubs to running his own catering company, took a break from London's food scene to head up the kitchen in Calais.
'Part of the reason I kind of quit my last job and needed a break was because every job I'd had in London kind of came with this sense of doom and fear and pressure and stress that was unavoidable with that kind of work,' Mr Cottam told the PA news agency.
'Living with that kind of feeling is what kind of breaks me in the end. I can't do it forever.
'Here there's none of that stuff I would consider the negative side of working in kitchens.'
Mr Cottam, who runs a team of up to 20 volunteers, is responsible for preparing 700 to 800 meals daily for displaced people sleeping rough in and around Calais and Dunkirk.
'It's a pretty slick kind of operation,' he said. 'Its been nearly 10 years now, so they've kind of got it down to a fine art.'
The daily menu consists of a main dish, which is usually a type of curry or chorba, a Middle eastern soup, rice or pasta, salad and an array of condiments.
In Calais there are usually two services per day, one at lunchtime and the other in the evening.
Mr Cottam said he is starting to adapt his menu to support community members observing Ramadan, by preparing food that can be stored for later consumption.
Refugee Community Kitchen is also fundraising to provide a special Eid meal to celebrate the end of Ramadan.
Many Muslims will spend a period of 30 days abstaining from food and drink – including water – during daylight hours, as a means of celebrating and reflecting on their faith.
After sunset, the fast-breaking meal iftar is taken.
'I've got a kind of wild idea about making fresh pita bread that we'll either bake really early in the morning or late at night. And then we'll fill them with falafel and salad,' he said.
'We'll take some that we'll wrap and people can take away and also fried things like bhajis and pakoras, stuff that is going to be nice to eat later on.
'Most people don't have access to fires or any way of reheating food later on.'
Mr Cottam added that a lot of thought goes into the nutritional side of things to help support gut health.
'If you're living like people out here are living and have been living for a long time, you often, your immune system is going to be quite weak,' he said.
Calais has been a transit point for refugees and migrants for decades. People live in poor conditions, including makeshift camps, and are at risk of police brutality and regular evictions.
'There's very much still a humanitarian crisis going on not very far from London,' said Mr Cottam.
'It's important for people to know about what's happening in Calais and the brutality of the police here.'
A total of 36,816 people crossed the English Channel in 2024, which was an increase of 25% from the 29,437 who did so in 2023, according to the Home Office – but down by 20% on the record 45,774 arrivals in 2022.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Western Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Western Telegraph
Coldstream Guards mark 375th anniversary with return to birthplace Berwick
Soldiers in full ceremonial uniform – red tunics and bearskin caps – boarded an early morning LNER train from King's Cross Station on Tuesday to mark the occasion, joined by the Band of the Coldstream Guards. A quintet played on the concourse as the troops crossed the station to the platform with bayonets fixed. Members of The Coldstream Guards onboard an LNER train at King's Cross train station in London (Jeff Moore/PA) Back in 1660 the regiment marched down from Berwick to help restore the monarchy, dissolve Parliament and bring King Charles II back to the throne. The journey took them five weeks. Tuesday's return journey, by contrast, takes just a few hours – with the guards due back in London by evening. Crowds lined the streets of Berwick on Tuesday morning to welcome the guardsmen, who paraded through the town before attending a Service of Thanksgiving at Berwick Parish Church. The soldiers were joined by the Colonel of the Regiment, Lieutenant General Sir James Bucknall, and the Mayor of Berwick at the Guildhall for an inspection and civic reception. Members wearing their full ceremonial dress of scarlet tunics and bearskin caps, parade through their birthplace in Berwick-upon-Tweed (Owen Humphreys/PA) The Coldstream Guards are the oldest continuously serving regiment in the British Army. Formed in 1650 during the English Civil War, they have served in every major conflict since and earned 113 battle honours and 13 Victoria Crosses. After returning to London, the regiment will be presented with new Colours at Windsor Castle before taking centre stage at Trooping the Colour on June 14, where they will troop the new flags for the King's official birthday. Berwick Parish Church, built in part by Coldstream Guards in the 1650s using stone from Berwick Castle, still houses the regiment's old Colours. The town granted the regiment the Freedom of Berwick in 2000. The Coldstream Guards remain an active infantry unit, recently returning from Operation Shader in the Middle East and set to deploy on a UN peacekeeping mission to Cyprus later this year. They were among the first British units to train Ukrainian soldiers in the UK, equipping them with vital frontline skills to defend against Russia's invasion.


Daily Mail
7 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Islam increases its share of the global population as the world's fastest-growing religion and Christianity slips, study shows
Islam is growing faster than any other religion in the world, according to a new study. Muslims now make up 25.6 per cent of the global population, while Christians make up 28.8 per cent, the report - which was released by the Pew Research Center on Monday - says. But the growth of Christianity has not kept up with the global population increase, with the religion's worldwide share slipping by 1.8 per cent. This fall-off is largely driven by disaffiliation, as well as aging populations and lower fertility rates. The Muslim population's share, on the other hand, increased by 1.8 per cent. Researchers said reasons for this growth was likely due to Islam's younger population and higher birthrates in some areas. Commenting on the trend, lead author of the Pew report, Conrad Hackett, said: 'It's just striking that there was such dramatic change in a 10-year period. 'During this time, the Muslim and Christian populations grew closer in size. Muslims grew faster than any other religion.' In addition, the study found that the largest share of Christians, which is about 31 per cent, can be found in sub-Saharan Africa, as opposed to Europe which has historically been home to the largest number of Christians in the world. At the same time, large numbers of former Christians are now falling into the unaffiliated category, which includes atheists, agnostics and people who simply don't identify with any religion. This is now the third largest religious category globally at 24.2 per cent, which shows a rise from 16 per cent a decade ago. 'Among young adults, for every person around the world who becomes Christian, there are three people who are raised Christian who leave', Hackett said. The study also found the number of Buddhists to have plunged, dropping to 4.1 per cent. Pew cites a low birth rate and rising disaffiliation in East Asia. Hinduism remained steady at 1.49 per cent, while Judaism, making up just 0.2 per cent of the global population, also fell behind the global growth rate. The study looked at more than 2.700 censuses and survey across 201 countries and territories, covering nearly the entire global population.


NBC News
3 days ago
- NBC News
A mournful Eid al-Adha in Gaza
Under the damaged dome of al-Albani Mosque in Khan Younis, families stood on broken stone and dust, raising their voices in takbir, the declaration of god's greatness, to mark the first morning of Eid al-Adha on Friday. In Gaza, the holiest of the two major Muslim holidays is traditionally a time for communal worship, the sacrifice of lambs, and shared meals. Families gather around piles of bread baked on the saj and morsels of liver fresh from the slaughter. But this year in Khan Younis, there was no feast. No lambs to sacrifice. No smell of meat cooking, no joyful reunions. The celebration, stripped of its customs, pressed on in grief. 'We don't eat meat, we don't eat liver, we are not happy like other times waiting for the Eid with joy,' Eftarag Abou Sabaa told NBC News' team in Khan Younis. Rather than the ritual sacrifice of a lamb, Abou Sabaa said, 'We sacrifice the blood of martyrs. We sacrifice our sons, our daughters, and our mothers; we sacrifice ourselves in a way that sets us apart from other people.' That morning, crowds moved quietly to the Khan Younis cemetery to visit loved ones lost to the war, and greeted each other by the tombstones of children, parents, and friends. Only the buzz of Israeli drones overhead filled the solemn silence. 'This is not an Eid of joy; it is an Eid of mourning and death,' Ahmed Darwish, displaced from Rafah to west Khan Younis, told NBC News as he stood beside the graves. 'Our children and women are in pieces. Instead of sacrificing animals, we collected body parts this morning.' On Eid, Israeli strikes continued as families wept by the bodies of their loved ones, killed before celebrations could begin. Reda Abdel Rahim Eljara told an NBC News team that Israeli air strikes had already killed her husband and one of her sons. On the first day of Eid al-Adha, she lost two more sons and her daughter-in-law. "Three months ago, on Eid al-Fitr, my son Qais got married," she told NBC News. "Today, on the main Eid, he is martyred with his wife." Umm Ahmad Al-Qatati said her son, Omar, 11, was shot as he left his tent to shower and get ready for a visit to see his father. 'He was so excited for Eid morning, but they sent him to the morgue instead,' she said. "Instead of celebrating Eid, he went to be with his Lord." Those for whom death had not come, trudged forward. At the ruins of al-Albani Mosque, Thaer al-Salmi, 14, continued to pray. "We try to find some joy by praying and wearing a few clothes to feel the Eid spirit," he said. 'I hope this war ends, and that next Eid will be like it was two years ago — a real celebration without war.'