Community answers call to distribute halal food boxes in Hamilton, after monthly pick-up cancelled

After several consecutive months of offering in-person pick-ups of food boxes, the team behind the city's only halal food bank at Hamilton's Mountain Mosque decided this past weekend to pivot to delivery due to the high case numbers of COVID-19's Omicron variant.

Mishka Social Services, which has been running its BarakahBox program for the past six years, was worried about the impact of the virus on lower-income and racialized people, board member Nagham Azzam told CBC Hamilton on Sunday.

"We wanted to make sure that we kept our guests and our volunteers safe, [while] also acknowledging that households that struggle every day to make ends meet and access our services need the boxes," said Azzam.

According to Mishka Social Services, the program serves hundreds of families each month.

The decision was made to pivot to delivery service, as they had done for only a short time earlier in the pandemic, but Azzam said their volunteers could not make the deliveries because they are mostly youth who don't have drivers licences. 

They put a call-out on social media Friday for volunteer drivers and, with barely a day's notice, the community response exceeded expectations, with about 25 volunteers signing up.

"We didn't expect it. We were really anxious switching to a delivery model, knowing that we have a very young volunteer base, but the community came out and responded," Azzam said.

"In [Saturday's] operation, we distributed 175 [boxes] because we had to split it up because of the quick turnaround. We'll be distributing another 100 to 125 in two weeks to finish up this month."

Burlington resident Hassan Al-Ghareib was among those who responded to the call for volunteers. 

He said prior to seeing the call-out on Twitter, he had not heard of BarakahBox, but he was happy for the opportunity "to give back."

"I've been very fortunate throughout my entire life and having immigrated to Canada when I was very young … it just felt like the right thing to do," Al-Ghareib told CBC Hamilton. 

"I ended up visiting eight families across the city … Seeing gratitude on these people's faces and seeing their families and how appreciative they were of the generosity of these organizations, it's really indescribable.

"For many Canadians, food isn't an issue, but for so many it is. Food security is an issue. It's hard to afford everything, let alone food and the cost of it," Al-Ghareib said. "So, it was heartwarming. It was motivating, it was humbling." 

BarakahBox has been providing its unique food packages on a monthly basis for more than six years.