SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Tarbiya Institute in Roseville is giving back to its community by volunteering numerous hours and delivering meals to their doorsteps.
On Thanksgiving day, more than 30 volunteers prepared about 400 meals for two local shelters and refugee families in Sacramento.
"You helping with the community," asked a little girl who was being hand-delivered a meal.
"Yeah, trying to," said Yousef Nawabi, who is the Tarbiya Groups Coordinator.
"May Allah bless you," said the little girl.
"We follow (what is) called the Sunnah. The Sunnah is following the footsteps of our Prophet. Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. And one of (his) main staples was charity... and this is giving back in several ways," said Yaqub Khan, the Chairman of the Tarbiya Institute Board of Directors.
They chose to give back with food and time.
Last year for Thanksgiving, they also gave another 600 meals, which inspired the group to give out monthly meals with a plan to donate even more next year.
"There's a lot of feelings that go through you know the human emotion. The experience that we have. When we do something nice for somebody else, it makes it feel kind. That's not why we do it," said Nawabi.
They do it with the full intent of delivering joy to their community during the holidays.
"We're so blessed. We're so blessed to live in this country. We're so blessed to live in this area. That we are privileged. And this gives us an opportunity to give back. And once again following in the footsteps of our Prophet, it builds character," said Khan.
And in the end, they want these families to know that there is someone out there that cares about them.
"We have a lot of refugee and homeless people in Sacramento. And so, we figured the least that we can do is our responsibility. If we have enough and we're fortunate enough to be able to put food on our tables. Then we should put an effort to help people that are less fortunate," said Nawabi.
The group has fed over 3,600 meals to hundreds of families in the past year. And with that standard, they're hoping to feed even more next year.
