The Brown & White

A group of students left the familiarity of South Bethlehem on Friday to volunteer their time at Trinity Beth Episcopal Church's soup kitchen on East Market Street on the North Side.

The students are part of a national organization called Muslims Against Hunger, an organization that partners with soup kitchens and food pantries to provide volunteers and food.

Taha Haque, '10, contacted Zamir Hassan, the founder and head of Muslims Against Hunger, and expressed interest in bringing the organization to Lehigh. Haque said the chapter will be the first in Pennsylvania.

Haque said the group is not only for Muslims. "We want to include everyone to create and continue an interfaith dialogue," he said.

About 15 students helped serve a lunch of Hassan's special chicken, rice and green beans to the people gathered at Trinity Beth. Haque said the participating students were from all different campus groups, including ROTC, Hillel Society and Hindu students.

Haque said the timing of the event had lots of significance. Not only was it the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, but it was also during Ramadan, a month-long celebration when Muslims fast from dawn until dusk.

"This is an important month for us, so we're giving back while we're fasting," Haque said.

Engin Eryilmaz, '10, said giving back has made fasting more fulfilling. "I am fasting, but serving this food is making me stronger."

This event was part of Muslims Against Hunger's goal of serving 3,000 meals in 30 days for the month of Ramadan as part of their "Faith in Action for Common Cause" campaign.

Hassan started volunteering in soup kitchens in 2002 when he went with his son for a school project. He said he was surprised that even in Morristown, N.J., a wealthy city, there were people in need of food.

He said there are many more people in the U.S. that are hungry than one would expect. In Pennsylvania alone, there are a half million hungry people, he said.

"Food insecurity" as it's called, affects 11 percent of U.S. citizens.

"It's amazing that problem exists and we don't realize how much poverty there is," he said.

Hassan said not everyone that goes to soup kitchens are homeless, as one might assume. "These people are the working poor, or are on fixed incomes and they just don't have enough."

In 2005 Hassan started opening other chapters of Muslims Against Hunger around the Northeast. Today the grassroots organization has chapters in six different states, and one in Canada. "The goal is to educate, raise awareness and get people involved," he said. "Charity is the base of every faith."

Hassan said he thinks having college students involved in the program is great for increasing hunger awareness. "Everyone is from different towns, so when they go home, they can spread the word."

Two similar chapters have been established at Rutgers University and Stony Brook University in New York.

The new chapter, ran by Haque, will be responsible for running one program at the soup kitchen every two months. Haque said depending on the number of people who volunteer, they could increase the number of events.

The new chapters are initially funded by the national organization, but are eventually responsible for raising their own money.