Eid al-Fitr was this week, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan for Muslims. In Buffalo, for the end of Ramadan, from May 3 to May 12, Feed Buffalo organized a community effort to make sure every person participating could break the fast each night with a healthy halal meal.
Feed Buffalo is a food pantry that offers free, locally-sourced, organic and halal food to people who may have dietary restrictions. The pantry opened at the start of the pandemic and has also been asked by New York State Contact Tracing to also help service people in quarantine with dietary restrictions.
Drea d’Nur, Feed Buffalo’s founding director, knows first-hand the barriers Muslim families in Buffalo face to food access. At a time when she sought from food pantries for her family of seven, she realized there weren’t always healthy or halal options offered.
“I watched other people leave the pantry with, you know, lots of bags, and I would only be able to take, you know, one or two. And I really struggle with feeling like ungrateful because of what they were giving me.”
She decided to take that experience and turn it into Feed Buffalo, and this year, d'Nur and Feed Buffalo Director of Ramadan Programs Rabia Mirza decided to extend the pantry's mission beyond just groceries. For Ramadan, they organized “Iftar on Wheels” which provided a free, delivered, homecooked halal meal to families breaking their fast each day.
Mirza says this initiative highlights a teaching in Islam about helping your neighbors.
“In Islam, we were taught that if your neighbor asks you for something, now it is your requirement, to serve them, and to serve them honorably, and without any hesitation," said Mirza.
d'Nur also expressed how equal access to healthy food is essential to improving our communities.
“This is not community building, if you're not feeding everybody. If you're only feeding certain people good food, and if you're completely excluding people who are different from you,” d'Nur said
d’Nur added this is an opportunity for all of us to reflect on how we can help our neighbors.
To learn more about Feed Buffalo, visit www.feedbuffalo.org.
