Gifting freshly prepared, hot meals to hundreds of refugees each week.

Salam’s volunteer chef heroes

WHO ARE SALAM?

Salam is one of  the longest-standing charity specifically created to support displaced people in Northern France.

They began by cooking and distributing fresh hot food over a decade ago, and continue doing so today, along with providing breakfasts, information, and material support.

Salam make it a point to reuse and recycle whenever possible, cooking with mostly donated food from supermarkets, and making food containers out of cleaned packaging like yogurt tubs.

Every service is delivered by a volunteer-only workforce, mostly comprised of retired men and women aged 65+ as well as former refugees, who each go to extraordinary lengths and donate days of their time and energy to prepping, cleaning and serving the food they gift.

One of Salam’s lovely long-term volunteers.

WHERE ARE THEY BASED?

With their community of volunteers from across Northern France wishing to support displaced people in their own cities, Salam currently has two teams : one in Calais and one in Dunkirk.

HISTORY WITH US

ORAT began works with Salam in November 2022, after a personal request was made by our founder’s mother, Salma Rauf, who wanted to gift hot meals containing halal meat to refugees on the anniversary of her mother’s death.

Cue our very own Caroline approaching Claire Millot of Salam to see if they would be able to cook and distribute the meals on time.

Claire Millot means Salma Rauf – the woman who was the seed to this arm of our works.

Luckily for us, the answer was yes!

Onjali and her mother travelled to Calais together, and saw for themselves the joyous passion with which the Salam team volunteers undertook the strenuous works.

Not to mention the desperately needed resources which donations from supermarkets sometimes do not cover.

Upon their return and after assessing capacities, Onjali decided that a one-off donation was not enough.

Ever since, Salam’s working needs have been integrated into ORAT’s ambitions to provide what aid and support it can to excellent frontline teams.

Heroes delivering hot meals in the camps.

WHAT WE PROVIDE

ORAT conducts a monthly food shop for Salam to a restricted budget of €400, and has been doing so since November 2022.

Caroline Cottet, ORAT’s Director of Frencg Operations, liaises directly with the team and chefs to ensure an accurate list of the most needed items is obtained, before purchasing and delivering these directly to the Salam kitchens.

The reason for ORAT conducting the shops and delivery ourselves, is because Salam’s team, composed largely of elderly volunteers, find it more helpful to receive all goods directly directly (rather than volunteers needing to make time to go to the shops as well as lift heavy goods).

Our latest Ramadan Appeal seeks to safeguard the funds needed to continue delivering these shops for the coming year.

Delivery of giant tins of tomatoes, beans and chickpeas.

WHAT SALAM NEED

To complement the donated food items they receive from local supermarkets and businesses, Salam’s regular shortfalls and needs relate to rice, vegetables, spices, and whenever possible, fresh meats.

Funds are also required for fuel costs of two vehicles (1 van in Dunkirk and 2 in Calais), water and electricity bills, and the gas bottles which the team cook with.

ORAT’s main focus is to provide fresh food shops, but should any surpluses be identified, we will work to ease other costs where we can.

Learn more about Association Salam HERE.

Donate to our Ramadan Food for A Year Appeal HERE so we can deliver fresh food directly to the kitchens team all year.