A SCHEME that has brought asylum seekers together over hundreds of hot meals needs to find new funding.

Into Great meets every Friday lunchtime at Broadgreen-based refugee charity the Harbour Project.

The project has been funded for almost two years by the People’s Health Trust.

But funding will soon run out – and organisers are on the hunt for donors who can help keep the project running.

Fidelma Meehan of project organisers C-Change Empowerment said: “The idea is that people help to cook the meals. They bring their recipes and bring their culture to the cooking.

“Food is at the heart of everything that connects us. As soon as we introduced this element of cooking to the project, it took off.”

Prior to the project serving these weekly meals, around five or six people would arrive each week to take part in a range of activities.

Now, there’s an average of 40-50 eating together every Friday – with refugees and asylum seekers hailing from as far afield as Afghanistan, Somalia and Zimbabwe.

The menu changes each week, with dishes from Syria, Iran, Somalia, Ireland and England.

Fidelma added: “We give people the opportunity to produce the food and they bring their talent and cultures into it.”

Some weeks, the diners also take part in fun quizzes - probed on British general knowledge.

Zimbabwean mum Heather Birdas, 43, comes to the club every Friday with her son, Joshua.

“I enjoy the social aspect, sharing different meals and different cultures coming together,” she said. “There are all different nationalities here.”

She added that for asylum seekers who have as little as £5 a day on which to live while their asylum claims are processed, a free meal was welcome.

Neda Krishnan, 59, who cooked up Persian chicken dish Khoreshteh Ghaimeh on Friday, said the project brought different groups together.

“It’s just creating a wonderful atmosphere,” she said. “Whereas before each group were sitting in a corner, now they feel respect for each other.”

For more about Into Great, visit: www.harbourproject.org.uk.