A POPULAR Indian takeaway is helping feed its local NHS staff and the wider community.

Eastern Cuisine in Witney has been providing meals to staff at Witney Community Hospital, and anyone in the community who needs help.

The restaurant has now created a GoFundMe page so the public can sponsor meals for the vulnerable and those in need, with £5 able to fund a meal.

The page was set up on Thursday and has already raised over £3,000 out of a target of £5,000.

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Asad Ahmed, from the Burwell Drive restaurant, said that since making the pledge to feed the vulnerable and those in need, his team had delivered more than 400 meals.

He said: “The current crisis has brought us together and made us realise we must take steps to support the community we live in.

“If anyone is not working and runs out of food, please don’t go to sleep with an empty stomach.

“We will be more than happy to share whatever food we have, we will drop and go.

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“We have had a huge response from people requiring help, from people in isolation with young children, elderly in isolation and many who have lost their jobs.

“We have indeed managed to serve a number of households including the NHS, whilst we have been dropping off food every week to the Witney Community Hospital.”

Mr Ahmed said donations have also been made to the Witney Community Fridge and the Witney & West Oxfordshire Foodbank.

He added: “We are only into the third week of lockdown and more people than before now require help.”

Mr Ahmed said he was overwhelmed by the response and messages he had received from people he had helped, with some he said even crying on the phone to him.

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“On Sunday, a lady in her 80s who had been released from the hospital came home to no proper food available or ability to go out and shop,” he said.

“A neighbour contacted us and we delivered a hot meal for her.

“The lady later called to thank us and was in tears. ”

Mr Ahmed and his team are looking for further donations via the page to help more people in the coming weeks.

You can donate at: gofundme.com/f/yvxkb7-sponsor-a-meal-for-a-vulnerable-person