This Bradford youth group is once again doing their part to tackle food insecurity heading into the holiday season.
As part of a nation-wide food drive, the local chapter of Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association (AMYA) of Canada collected and donated more than 900 kilograms of food for Bradford’s Helping Hand Food Bank over the last two weekends.
Based on the current demand and about 500 families being served, that should be enough to stock shelves for roughly the next three weeks, according to food bank executive director Carolyn Khan.
“We’re so grateful for Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association for all their support year after year,” she said.
This year’s donation included soups, crackers, cereal, oatmeal, rice, beans, pasta, sauces and peanut butter — all of which are likely to benefit almost all of the food bank’s clients as Khan explained AMYA “have the pulse” of what the community needs.
Members dedicated 10 hours each Saturday and Sunday running the collection in the lobby of the Bradford Walmart as part of their fifth year participating in the association’s Million Pounds of Food campaign, in which each local chapter from across Canada raises donations to help their local food banks.
“It’s always an unexpected beautiful surprise, because they’re so passionate about what they do for people experiencing food insecurity,” Khan said. “Despite any hardship that’s happening around the world and any targeted racism, they continue to show up, they continue to do good in our community, and for this we’re forever grateful.”
Those efforts to help and serve humanity are an integral part of members’ Muslim faith, according to Salman Ahmad, AMYA’s serving regional president for Simcoe.
“We want to give back to the community,” he said. “We are part of this country and we want to help people.”
Ahmad was also quick to share the credit for this year’s collection with both Walmart — thanking them for allowing members to set up the collection at the store for the first time — and with Bradford and area residents.
“We are overwhelmed with the community’s response,” he said. “We could have not done this without the community support.”
While some of the donations came directly from association members, Ahmad said most were collected from people visiting the store, and based on that success, they’re hoping to expand to even more locations next year.
Meanwhile, AMYA plan to be out again at Walmart, 545 Holland St. W., Dec. 14 and 15, from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day, in the hopes of collecting even more for the food bank.
“Please stop by and donate whatever you can,” Ahmad said. “Thank you for supporting us. We cannot do this without you.”
AMYA is an auxiliary organization of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at (AMJ) Canada, a non-profit charity organization headquartered in Vaughan, and its youth members are active in numerous projects across the country including blood drives, city and park cleanups, adopt-a-road programs, food drives, fundraising activities for Africa, plantings, and career counselling programs. For more information, visit mercy4mankind.ca.
More information about Helping Hand and how it’s been serving the community since 1991 can be found at bradfordfoodbank.ca.
