"Helping out, one date at a time" is the motto for “Muslim Neighbors”, a group of Muslim women that gathers every Sunday to distribute snack packs to Ottawa's homeless.

The idea for the project came up during a road trip. The idea was to help those less fortunate while displaying the beautiful character of Islam.

 "As Muslims we have the responsibility of helping the needy. Allah, glory be to Him in the Highest, says in the Holy Quran that a truly God-conscious person is one who gives from what Allah has blessed him with and therefore as Muslims it is our responsibility to help the needy,” explains Sarah, of the founders of the project.

“On several occasions we have been asked where we are from and who we are -- as in what is our religion -- as we are identifiably different (because we wear the headscarf)…With this project we are hitting two birds with one stone: helping the needy and doing dawah (calling to Islam)," she adds.

The snack packs provided by the group include a: sandwich, a juice box, a granola bar and a fruit. The packs are distributed every Sunday by five active members around three major homeless shelters in the downtown area.

During their walks, the women have met people from all walks of life. They’ve also come across a church organization working in the same area that hands out larger lunch bags distributed out of a bigger van.

"It is nice to see that there are others also doing things like this. Allah knows we couldn’t possible feed all the needy in Ottawa, but our question is where are the masajids (mosques), Muslim associations and teams with their vans handing out food?" asks Sarah.

In their efforts to spread the word of Islam, the group has introduced food commonly associated with Muslims into the snack packs. On one Sunday during Ramadan the ladies decided to include 3 to 4 dates in each snack pack. A couple of weeks later while handing out the sandwich bags at their usual location a man approached the group and asked if they were the same group who had handed out the snack packs a few weeks earlier. The girls replied yes. He then asked them about the dates, and told them that he had never had them before and that he had really liked them.

While the group has had its share of success, there have been obstacles such as a lack of regular volunteers and food shortages. One member shared this anecdote:

"We approached a group of men outside the Mission on Laurier. We had walked across the street from the car to this group carrying two bags of snack packs each. We were able to give a bag to each of them except this one man in a wheel chair who came after we had finished distributing the bags. He was really kind and accepted our apologies with a smile and said it was ok. When we got back to the car we all felt really down, we just needed one more sandwich but had run out. Then one of the sisters remembered that she had a loaf of banana bread, freshly made (still warm), so we put one juice box, fruit, banana bread and granola bar in the bag, ran across the street to this man who was happy to receive this while all the others were shouting ‘Hey look! They got a bag for you too’.”

If you would like to volunteer with the group or donate food or money, contact them at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it