Muslim Volunteers Help Fight Hunger on Long Island

We made it to the papers

Hamdulillah this really is a great opportunity, it’s such a nice feeling at the end of the day when your tired but its such a nice tired. Read about us in Newsday:

It was Muslim Serve Day at the Mary Brennan soup kitchen in Hempstead.

Wearing a bright smile beneath her white head scarf, volunteer Homa Khowaja, a recent graduate of Stony Brook University, was popping delicate cherry tomatoes and carrot pieces into 400 cups of salad.

Nearby Zamir Hassan, a computer consultant, was tasting the rice cooking in huge cauldrons. Fragrant trays of tandoori chicken, prepared in volunteers’ homes, stood waiting to be served to 400 expected guests. The pace quickened to a feverish pitch as the hour for the guests’ arrival approached.

Khowaja, 22, of Massapequa, and Hassan, 58, and about 25 other volunteers were wearing name tags that identified them as Muslims Against Hunger, an organization founded by Hassan in 2002.Hassan was inspired, he said, when he worked with his son on a school project in a Morristown, soup kitchen and discovered that the New Jersey community, one of the wealthiest in the country, had hidden poverty and hunger.

Through the volunteers the New Jersey resident also learned that there are as many as 259,000 hungry on Long Island, where there is a large Muslim population from which he could recruit volunteers.

The group, which also serves at New Jersey soup kitchens, sponsored its first Long Island charity lunch at the Mary Brennan soup kitchen last fall and has returned four times. Hassan now hopes to expand the charity mission to Suffolk County.

Why they do it

Charity, Hassan noted, is “the third pillar of Islam.” The group’s Web site, muslims againsthunger.org, offers volunteers “an opportunity to support and participate in the ‘Act of Righteousness’” and to “show the greater community the true and compassionate face of the Muslim and Islam.” The Prophet Muhammad directed his followers to “Help the weak among you, Help your neighbor, if he seeks your help, Feed him if he is hungry.”

Hassan had little difficulty recruiting Long Island volunteers, who range from teenage students (16 is the youngest allowed) to retirees in their 60s. Part of his aim, he said, is to “teach Muslim young people about the problems of hunger, poverty and homelessness in our own neighborhoods.”

Khowaja, a psychology graduate, is on her fourth soup-kitchen project. “I love it – it’s a great community service,” she said. She and other young women in head scarves were enjoying each other’s company as they filled the salad cups.

The Interfaith Nutrition Network, which runs soup kitchens across Long Island, welcomes such sponsorship, said communications director Cynthia Sucich. The help is particularly needed when schools are closed and children don’t get the school lunches that families depend on.

“The summer months are especially challenging,” she said.

The nutrition group depends on 2,000 volunteers who regularly help prepare and serve the meals in the 19 soup kitchens, Sucich said. In addition, a number of corporate, church or senior groups come for a day. Some, like the Muslim group, bring in the food, while others come as volunteers to help with the chores. “We need more groups,” she said.

Some companies make it a festive day with T-shirts and hats, Sucich said. “The employees are all enthusiastic and have a great time.” They free up the regular volunteers, like Lesley Thomas, 65, of Hempstead, to sort groceries and clothing and do other chores that they normally wouldn’t have time for.

A sense of community

Hassan agrees that joy should be part of the occasion. “Come to the soup kitchen prepared to have a good time. The volunteers who have fun together help the guests the most,” reads the first lines in his serving instruction sheets. “Most of our guests appreciate your service and will tell you so.”

Volunteers are assigned to different shifts, depending on their work or school schedule. Some can come only for the morning hours or at lunchtime. But some come for the whole thing, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., when they are there for the cleanup.

The menu today is unusually gourmet, featuring the tandoori chicken, a savory recipe from the Punjab region of India and Pakistan. Then there’s the basmati rice pilaf, which, Hassan said, is “a recipe from mom.”

That is another rule, according to Hassan. “You must share your own food. We feed the poor what we feed our friends. The clients are our guests.”

Another bonus for Mary Brennan clients is “they don’t have to stand on line today,” said Robert J. Pape Jr., director of fundraising for Interfaith Nutrition Network. The additional volunteers will serve the guests at the tables instead of buffet-style.

The Muslim group will be back at the Brennan soup kitchen on Sept. 8. Groups or individual volunteers can contact the INN at 516-486-8506, ext. 115; the-inn.org.