SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Feeding the unhoused community on Christmas Eve is an annual tradition for several dozen members of the local Muslim community, who come out to Sacramento Loaves & Fishes to prepare and serve a holiday meal.
21-year-old Cal Poly student Sana Iqbal wouldn't normally be up at 6:30 on a Saturday morning.
"Definitely not. I love sleeping in!" she said.
This Saturday, however, she and her brother Danyal showed up early to volunteer at Loaves & Fishes, preparing a Christmas Eve meal for hundreds of people in the unhoused community.
"It's just something we've been doing since we were kids, and it feels really good to be able to give back to the community,” Iqbal said.
Her brother agrees.
"I've been doing this last six years. It always gives me joy to do this on Christmas Eve,” he said.
The siblings are here with their mom, Salma Iqbal, who – along with her kids – has volunteered here every Dec. 24 for the better part of a decade.
"It's just a giving time of the year,” she said. “I'm glad the kids were home so we could all come."
Khalid Saeed is the president of the American Muslim Voice Foundation, which organizes this annual volunteer event.
“We are cooking for our homeless friends,” he explained. “We have been doing it about 12, 13 years now. Every year we do it on 24th."
He said volunteering is an essential part of his faith, as a Muslim.
"Our Prophet, who gave us guidance through from God, he told us that the best among you in the eyes of God is who helps humanity,” Saeed said.
For almost 40 years now, Loaves & Fishes has provided services to the unhoused community - and relies on volunteers like these to serve some 800 people per year, development director Rukhsana Khan said.
"These are the people that help us function and come together and provide the services we do,” she said.
Mario Knox lives in a shelter nearby and is among those in the unhoused community who will be enjoying Saturday’s meal.
"That's good that they're helping us again today,” he said, of the Muslim community who comes out to volunteer every year.
“We've seen just such an increase of love from the community,” Khan said. “That does a lot during the holidays. It just, it grounds you and reminds you what the holidays are really about.”
Watch more from ABC10: Holiday events to volunteer at in the greater Sacramento region
