The 2020 Annual National Muslim Soup Kitchen Day arrived one week after Ramadan, the holy month that emphasizes charity, one of Islam’s five pillars. The effort has fed thousands of the Capital Region’s needy since Muslim Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students launched the Muslim Soup Project in 2003. Worshippers at the Al-Hidaya Center in Latham volunteer their time to prepare 1,409 meals in one day for homeless shelters and those in need.
Muslim Soup Kitchen Project director Uzma Popal talked about the unique challenges of getting the free meals made and delivered during the pandemic. This is her fifth year at the project’s helm.
“This is a frightening and difficult time in our nation and in our local community,” Popal said. “The only way we will only be able to conquer this pandemic and its effects is if we stand together in a spirit of unity with each other and service to anyone in need.”
People of all faiths volunteer but packaging and delivering meals takes place at local Muslim community centers, she added.
Q: What were some of the unusual challenges the pandemic posed for this year’s soup kitchen project? Any problems due to the virus disrupting the food supply chain?
A: Usually we have dozens of cooks who volunteer to cook. However, when COVID-19 hit we right away started to plan for a worst case scenario. So, we put in orders for some of the items ahead of time. We ordered food container boxes over month in advance.
We could not take chances with cooks getting sick or just not feeling comfortable leaving their houses and having to cancel at the last minute. So, we decided to order food from local restaurants. The three restaurants that gave us huge discounts and made it possible are Ali Baba Restaurant in Troy and Albany’s LaZeez and Zaitoon.
MSKP’s many wonderful cooks still wanted to help so they made desserts.
Since there is a limit on how many items can be bought at one time, our wonderful volunteers made multiple trips to buy what we needed. And serving 1,700 meals means we needed a lot.
Everything was delivered to various locations (nursing homes, hospitals, homeless shelters) instead of served onto dishes by volunteers. Normally, we would have over 100 volunteers who would help serve on site at different shelters.
But we have more drivers now and only ten, max, indoors at a single time. In years without a pandemic, we would have 30 or more volunteers at one time at AL-Hidaya. In the past years, we have encouraged people to bring their children to volunteer but not this year.
2) Q: Do any local farms or grocery stores donate food for the annual effort?
A: We have local stores that give us big discounts and we are very grateful for that. The Bella Napoli in Troy gave us discounts on 1,700 bread rollsThe three restaurants also gave us huge discounts on the chicken and rice.
We had generous donors who gave money. Helping Hands Relief and Development donated $1,000. Also, community members donated through a GoFundme that we set up.
3) Q: Your meals include far more than soup. What was on the 2020 menu?
A: Our menu for this year is: Biryani (rice with chicken), yogurt sauce, salad, rolls, and bottles of water.
4)Q: Did you have difficulty finding what you needed for meals due to disruptions in the food supply chain?
A: It was a challenge, but volunteers helped by making multiple trips to the stores to make sure we had enough ingredients to make salad and other dishes. For example, I went to 2 different stores to buy 200 cucumbers. Another volunteer went to many different stores to buy 15 heads of lettuce.
MSKP is run solely on dedicated volunteers. Like me many of our volunteers work full time and have families, some with children that they homeschool.
We all need to come together and do our part. That is what a community is. That is what MSKP is. Creating Unity by serving humanity.
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In fact no matter if someone doesn’t be aware of then its
up to other people that they will help, so here it takes place.