EP mosque packs over 20,000 meals for charity

“I love to bring the community together to do good, for the community,” said Nora Nashawat, the local organizer of a Sept. 14 event that packed more than 20,000 meals for distribution in the Twin Cities.

It’s the second time within the past few years that Nashawaty has organized a meal packing event at Eden Prairie’s Masjid Al-Tawba mosque. This month’s meal pack attracted approximately 65 volunteers from all over the Twin Cities, said Abdul Karim Kaissi.

Kaissi is part of the seven-member board that governs the Islamic Community Cultural Center (ICCC), comprised of Eden Prairie’s Masjid Al-Tawba and another mosque in Fridley. 

While Kaissi noted that the volunteers were provided with snacks like doughnuts and bottled water, the meal packs’ ingredients, supplied by Islamic Relief USA, consisted of rice, beans, dehydrated carrots, and specially formulated spice and nutrient mixtures.

Wsmah Siddiqui, lead engagement specialist for Islamic Relief USA, noted that the components were developed to be nutritionally sound for undernourished people, including nutrients to protect against vomiting. 

The pinto beans, Siddiqui said, are both halal and kosher, and the basmati rice and other meal components are also chosen to be culturally sensitive foods appropriate for all ethnicities.

Each bag contains six servings and can be prepared with only the addition of water or, Siddiqui said, it can be used as a supplement with proteins such as chicken. The meal packs have a two-year shelf life.

While Islamic Relief USA coordinates meal packs around the country nearly every weekend – they’ll be in Iowa and New Jersey the weekend of Sept. 20-21 – they partner with local organizations, often Feeding America member food shelves, for distribution.

The 3,481 bags packed in Eden Prairie on Sunday, representing 20,886 meals, will be distributed via Al-Maa’uun, a Minneapolis-based organization that works with substance abuse recovery, poverty, and oppression, and the Harvest from the Heart food shelf.

“All of these meals are staying in the community, and so we’re serving our neighbors,” Nashawaty said. “We’re serving our neighborhoods, we’re serving our schools. And it’s not every opportunity that you get to do that. In times like this, it’s really important that we find ways to give back locally.”

Asad Ali, shown in the photo at right, and his siblings took turns banging the gong that celebrated numerical milestones at the meal packing event, such as 15,000 and, later, 20,000 meals packed.

Originally scheduled to end at 1 p.m., the meal packing concluded approximately 20 minutes earlier: in packing the 20,886 meals, the volunteers had used up all of the provided rice.