Calgary Ismaili Muslim community providing much-needed relief through food bank donations

Volunteers with Calgary's Ismaili Muslim community unload donations to the Calgary Food Bank.

Calgary — Ismaili Muslim volunteers are giving back to those hardest hit because of the corona virus.

Close to a dozen Ismaili CIVIC volunteers arrived at the Calgary Food Bank on Friday morning, with a truck and five cars loaded with donations.

The Ismaili Muslim Community came together and donated more than 1,000 pounds of non-perishable food items, and more than 300 pounds of fresh perishable food items, including close to $1,400 in monetary donations.

“It’s a great partnership we have with the Calgary Food Bank. The food bank themselves suggested to purchase perishable food items, fresh items.” said volunteer Munira Jessa.

“The clients of the food bank can additionally benefit from this.”

Jessa added that some people unfortunately have to scale back on nutritional foods like fruits and vegetables because it may be unaffordable to them.

“To be able to contribute that is a great honour for us," said Jessa.

Each year during Ramadan members of the Ismaili Muslim community collect thousands of pounds of non-perishable food items at Jamatkhanas (a place of worship).

“Our Jamatkhanas were temporarily closed just like all other places of worship," said Jessa.

But that didn’t stop the Ismaili community from their annual tradition of serving those in need. They’re just doing it virtually.

“We’re experiencing the notion of being separated from our loved ones and our community," said Jessa. “What’s kept our community together is virtual programming.”

Jessa added they’ve been able to offer programs on how to do exercise at home, play board games and be creative with arts and crafts.

“Many members of our community donated resources and their time to sew cloth masks," said Jessa.

“It’s very important that all frontline workers including the food bank volunteers and staff have protective equipment that protects their health and safety.”

One hundred cloth masks were donated to the food bank and next week the Ismaili CIVIC volunteers will be going to seniors care centres with homemade masks.