Our Affiliate: Musjid Al-Hidaya |
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| Muslim Soup Kitchen Project in the Times Union! |
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| on Saturday, May 10, 2008 - 09:39 PM - 798 Reads |
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Owais Memon: Coordinates area Muslim Soup Kitchen
Background: 21. Memon was born in Pakistan and moved to the Capital Region with his family when he was 3. He is a senior at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, with an electrical engineering major. He's a member of the college's Muslim Student Association and attends services on campus and at Masjid Al-Hidaya in Troy.
Tell us how the soup kitchen got off the ground.
RPI students Tauseef Ansari and Tauhira AbdulMatin began the project in 2003 and started forming a committee. I was at Shaker High at the time and signed up to recruit youth volunteers.
I started coordinating the project in 2005.
How do you recruit young volunteers?
We reach out to Albany Muslims through Facebook and make announcements at area mosques.
About 10 to 15 people come to help, mostly high school and college students, but also some adults. One of the sisters, Myriam Bellamy, calls facilities in Albany, Schenectady and Troy to see which one is available and finds out the number of meals we need to serve.
We go once a month, on the last Saturday of the month. Our next one is May 31.
Who cooks the food?
Another sister, Soumaya Sebkhaoui, contacts mothers in the community to request that they cook for us.
We average 150 to 200 meals each time. Usually we serve chicken curry and rice, sometimes pasta. In April, we served sandwiches. Sometimes we do breakfast.
It costs us $200 per soup kitchen. We do fundraising, buy supplies and drop them off at the volunteer cooks' places. The mothers drop off the cooked food to us or I pick it up.
We take food to the soup kitchen. We use the facility as our base and we package meals there. We serve there and deliver meals to other soup kitchens in the area.
How has the project affected you?
It is a good way for Muslims to reach out to non-Muslims. We sit down with the people and just listen. Many of the people who come there don't have anyone to talk to.
Also, we learn to appreciate how much we have. We see people who have so much less than we do. We are grateful for what God has given us.
The Quran says to feed the less-fortunate. "We feed you for the sake of God alone: no reward do we desire from you, nor thanks," Surah Insaan (Chapter 76, verse 9) You graduate next week. What happens to the Muslim Soup Kitchen project?
I have been doing this for about five years now. I am trying to hand off this project to someone capable.
-- Azra Haqqie |
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| Muslim Soup Kitchen Project in the Times Union! | Log-in or register a new user account | 0 Comments |
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Volunteer |
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Thank you to all who participated in our last soup kitchen! We're currently planning the next one, so please check back often. |
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Past Articles |
- Friday, August 07
- Serve at Latham Regional Foodbank - Aug 29- 2009 (0)
- Sunday, July 26
- MSKP recognized in Annual Report by Unity House (0)
- Tuesday, July 21
- Troy - July 25th- 11am (0)
- Thursday, May 28
- May 30th 2009 - Soup Kitchen volunteers needed (0)
- Friday, April 17
- April SK 2009 (0)
- Saturday, March 21
- March 28, 09 SK (0)
- Sunday, January 25
- January 31st Soup Kitchen - Albany (0)
- Sunday, September 14
- Deposit into your bank for Jannah! Come to the Foodbank! (0)
- Saturday, May 10
- Muslim Soup Kitchen Project in the Times Union! (0)
- Tuesday, April 22
- April 26th 2008 SK - Schenectady (0)
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