A FAMILY banded together to create a new food delivery service which will also help to fuel NHS staff during the coronavirus pandemic.

Desi Food, run by former Yorkshire Cricket Club bowler Azeem Rafiq and his family, will be providing traditional South Asian cuisine to the hardworking staff at Barnsley Hospital to help keep them going.

“We signed up to be NHS volunteers,” said Azeem’s sister, Amna, 24. “But we haven’t heard anything back yet so we were thinking about other ways we could help and we came up with the idea of providing food for the frontline staff.

“We have done a lot of cooking with Barnsley Cricket Club and my mum does a lot of home cooking so we thought it was a great way to help.

“We want the doctors and nurses to be as healthy as they can be and part of that is eating well so we wanted to donate food that they could eat during a long shift.”

Amna and Azeem also want to open Desi Food as a takeaway for the local community and all the money earned through orders will be donated to Barnsley Hospice.

In order to supply the food, Amna and Azeem registered with the hospice in acknowledgement that all the proceeds will be donated to the charity.

“The hospice thought it was a great idea,” added Amna. “For the public we will be offering a set menu each week which will include a starter, a curry, naan bread and rice. Azeem will be the delivery driver and will make sure that he delivers the food while maintaining social distancing.”

To order, contact Desi Food on Facebook.