Ottawa’s only halal food bank handles spike in demand during Ramadan

Ottawa’s only halal food bank is on discover to distribute at the least 500 Ramadan hampers this yr, a story quantity for the 18-yr-feeble organization, talked about founder and manager Salim Jam.

“It’s an advanced time,” talked about Jam. “There might perchance be so important poverty and food insecurity in this metropolis, and demand has increased after COVID. Folks are struggling to position food on their family’s tables.”

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The Sadaqa Food Bank operates out of a too-cramped unit in the corner of an industrial strip mall on Colonnade Avenue. As Ottawa’s only emergency-food carrier initiate on weekends, there’s in overall a line of purchasers when it opens at 9 a.m.

“We don’t turn someone away,” talked about Jam. The food bank serves someone in want, with the factual documentation, irrespective of religion. In the past yr, bigger than 600 original families had been added to the roster of purchasers.

Inside the unit, the restricted set is split between consumer intake, food sorting and distribution. The intake residence is packed with purchasers, many with younger other folks in tow, waiting their turn to be processed, whereas volunteers are attempting no longer to bump into every other as they assemble hampers in the sorting residence. The storage-door entrance to the distribution residence is initiate for volunteers to settle for donations.

Sturdy shelves are loaded from flooring to ceiling with non-perishable objects, from diapers and system to Kraft dinner and spaghetti sauce. Baskets of vegatables and fruits take a seat on every accessible flooring, and huge baggage of potatoes, rice and legumes are within reach. Eggs are stashed in a fridge, and vacuum-sealed programs of rooster correct kind came out of a enormous freezer. One shelf is stacked with packing containers upon packing containers of dates, a delicacy imbued with spirituality in Muslim custom.

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Loads of the customers are newcomers to Canada, Jam talked about, including immigrants and refugees from African and Middle Eastern countries, and, increasingly, Ukraine and Haiti. The newcomers in overall point to up without an appointment and might perchance perchance perchance also simply be processed first, their information added to the database managed by the Ottawa Food Bank (Sadaqa is a accomplice company of the metropolis’s main food bank.)

Now retired, Jam used to be working for the federal govt when he and a community of pals started giving out food to other folks in want. It started after they met to pray at a group on Bank Highway, and panhandlers would knock on the door to ask for money.

“We historical to present them money nonetheless then we view perchance we have to calm give them food,” Jam talked about. “We historical to buy baggage of rice or flour and drop them off at other folks’s homes. We didn’t accept as true with many buyers then.”

Demand has grown step by step over time, and spiked during COVID, attributable to a combination of rising charges, high interest charges and job losses. “Folks turned into to food banks, and it’s by no approach stopped,” Jam talked about.

The necessity is terribly acute during Ramadan. During the holy month, Muslims mercurial during the day and feast after sunset, a custom that requires more food for every family, Jam talked about.

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That’s why the Ramadan food abate that families obtain is bigger than frequent, with double the quantity of rice, flour and coconut oil, as nicely as a stout rooster and at the least one box of dates.

Why dates? “It’s something non secular,” talked about Jam. “You are feeling factual spiritually because it used to be the prophet’s custom to interrupt the mercurial with a date and water after sunset.”

Every yr, the organization runs a Ramadan food-basket advise that asks neighborhood participants to manufacture their very accept as true with hampers for the food bank. The record of prompt objects includes huge portions of rice, flour, lentils, and cooking oil, along with a one-kilogram box of dates.

“The dates trip in a instant time,” Jam talked about. “We continuously want more.”

Ramadan started earlier this month and ends on Tuesday, April 9.

To find out more about the Sadaqa Food Bank, and wait on (or to ask for food), trip to  sadaqafoodbankottawa.com.

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