Wearing I-CERV T-shirts and hairnets, volunteers carefully filled bags with dry rice, lentils, dehydrated vegetables, and Himalayan salt; the ingredients for a nutritious jambalaya.  Bags were sealed, boxed, and stacked, ready to be delivered to the ACFB.  In just the first of three shifts, 27,000 meals were assembled, resulting in the organizers escalating the day’s goal to 80,000 meals.

Cheers and laughter filled the lobby of the Jamatkhana, as teams raced to pack the most number of meals.  Five-year-old Alayna Punjani’s face lit up as she rung a little, red bell, indicating that her team had filled yet another box of food.  While Alayna could not believe that there were children her age who do not have food, she was delighted to be able to help them. 

Murad Abdullah, President of the Ismaili Council for the Southeastern United States, praised the spirit of voluntarism in the Jamat by announcing that it took just 48 hours to fill up the 600 volunteer slots for this event.

While addressing the volunteers at the event, Charlotte J. Nash, Chairman of the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners said: “It’s nice to be here and see the Ismaili community working together as volunteers to help fight the problem of hunger, particularly hunger of children.  The responsibility to serve others is such a strong tradition in the Ismaili community, and I am very inspired by what I saw today.”  She received a loud cheer as she challenged the volunteers to pack 200,000 meals in 2018, in commemoration of the bicentennial of Gwinnett County.

Representing the ACFB, President and Chief Executive Officer Kyle Waide said, “One in four children in our state of Georgia live in homes where they don’t have enough food. I am excited to take thousands of meals from this event back to the ACFB to feed hungry people across our region. Packing 80,000 meals, to help families in need this holiday season, is such an incredible example of how everyday citizens can make a huge impact on our community.”

Expressing his appreciation of I-CERV volunteers, Waide continued, “The Ismaili Muslim community has been committed for many years to improving the living conditions of all people. That dedication and commitment has been evident around the world and it has been evident in our own backyard. The Ismaili community has been a great partner of ours at the ACFB and they are making a tremendous difference.  We are so thankful for this effort, and excited to see what the community will do in the future.”

Zahir Ladhani, Vice President of the Ismaili Council for the United States, commented that the majority of the USA Jamat was either born in this country or has lived here for over a decade.  “We are a fabric of the United States.  As part of the ethic of our faith, we ask, what do we do for our own community, and what do we do for the broader communities that we live in. This event is a small part of what we can do as a Jamat.  We will see that as we grow further, the Jamat will continue working within the greater community in other areas, and on an even more intellectual level.”

Volunteer Asma Jaria helped with the event’s registration.  She said I-CERV’s 60 for 60 project is important to her personally, as one of her goals for this jubilee year is civic engagement and community service.  By partnering with the ACFB and Feeding Children Everywhere, this project incorporates both these aims.  Asma further shared, “Community service is important to me because it is a way for me to connect with my community and my faith.”

High school students and friends, Zenia Lakhani and Farzeen Daredia noticed how well the Jamat united in this project.  Farzeen said, “This project allowed our community to come together as one family, and work together for the same goal as one Ummah.  This is an ethical value that our Imam stresses.” Zenia continued, “There was a little girl named Rozi at our table, who was helping me seal the packages. I thought it was really cool to see how even people younger than me can have an impact and help out. This helps them feel that they too are a part of our community.  My grandma was also helping, so we had people from all varieties of the age spectrum, and I thought that was really cool.”

The event also attracted volunteers from the greater community.  David Schoenberg with Temple Sinai, and Second Helpings Atlanta attended this event.  For him, it was a way to build bridges with another local community towards a common greater cause.  Sharing the Ismaili community’s ethic of service, he said, “Service is the purpose of my being; that’s why we are on this planet.”

To accommodate more Jamati members who wanted to contribute and to make a bigger impact in the local community, a food drive was also organized where Jamati members donated non-perishable foods for the ACFB.  Nimat Virji decided to help seniors participate in this food drive by offering to purchase canned foods on their behalf.  In just a matter of a few days, she collected enough funds to purchase about 350 cans of food from these funds.  She said, “It was such a joy for me to help seniors participate in this event.” In total, almost 1,500 lbs of food were collected in Jamatkhanas of the Metro Atlanta area.

The Atlanta Community Food Bank is one of the largest hunger relief organizations in the Southeast, serving a network of 700 partner organizations to distribute food to over 750,000 individuals in the region.

Feeding Children Everywhere aims to provide healthy meals to children, seniors and veterans in need, and to create awareness of hunger.  The organization aims to help build a hunger-free world.  In 2016, Feeding Children Everywhere hosted over 510 projects, similar to I-CERV’s Day of Service, resulting in the distribution of 18 million meals, both domestically and internationally.