On Friday the 14th of October – the Eat2Feed program held its first homeless food event in partnership with PeaceForTheStreets - a homeless youth support group in Seattle.The location for the event was at: 1814 Summit Avenue, Seattle, 98122, at 5.30pm, for a duration of 2 hours. MAPS IOC members present were: Tarek Dawood, Kazi Al-Rashid, Liza Kazi, Sadi Khan.
It was a resounding success for our first event. There were approximately 30 people in attendance in a variety of age brackets – with a high concentration of youth-aged folks. The event centered on providing a warm meal to homeless or needy youth in the Seattle region while providing a sit-down environment for the youth and MAPS IOC members to discuss and learn from one another. Not everyone who showed up was homeless - infact there were a number of individuals who came for their unique reasons (one youngster worked with Muslim teenagers, had heard about this event and wanted to learn more - another came to clear her misconceptions about Islam)
Almost 2 hours later, to wrap-up the event we went around the room and spent a minute describing what we were taking away. It was both exciting hear closing comments such as, “we seem more alike than different”, “I felt educated”, and “it was great to learn about a new culture”
It was truly inspiring to be with open-minded, curious and genuine individuals with whom there was so much potential to share knowledge. The opportunities for further engagement with not just this group, but other like-minded groups are incredibly exciting.
Special thanks need to go out to the following people for helping making this happen:
· Inchin’s Bamboo Garden : Yogesh and his partnership in helping develop and participate in this program.
· Eat2Feed team members : for their hard-work and dedication to make this event possible.
· MAPS : The Muslim Association of Puget Sound and their continued support.
Below are just a few photos to whet your appetite :)
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