HALIFAX – Muslims in Halifax city in the eastern Canadian province of Nova Scotia spent Saturday morning, July 9, packing thousands of dollars worth of food for food banks and charities in the province.
“During the month of Ramadan you’re fasting and this year we fasted for the longest period of time,” food drive coordinator Asraa El-Darahali said, CBC reported.
“It’s 18.5 hours so we really felt what hunger felt like and we really felt what those who go without a meal feel,” she added.
El-Darahali is one of approximately 50 Muslims who volunteered on Saturday morning to bag cereal, tuna, pasta, and other foods. Each bag is ready to go to one family in need.
The effort followed the release of an appeal by Feed Nova Scotia earlier this week, saying its supplies were critically low.
In particular, the charity is asking for household staples such as cereal, rice, pasta, tomato sauce and other non-perishable items which can be used to make a full meal. 
Another 300,000 kilograms of non-perishable food is needed for Feed Nova Scotia to keep all of its food bank commitments through to September, communications director Karen Theriault said.
“It was pretty scary because the inventory levels for food were so low but people have just responded with such heart really, you can see it right here today,” she said.
Muslim volunteers spent about two hours stuffing bags for Feed Nova Scotia.
“We are sharing some of the Ramadan spirit with the greater community,” said Ummah Mosque executive chair, Ashraf Al Zaman, adding that more people were eager to volunteer.
Muslims make around 1.9 percent of Canada’s some 32.8 million population.
Their number has increased dramatically over the last decade and Islam has become the number one non-Christian faith in Canada.
A recent survey showed that the overwhelming majority of Muslims are proud to be Canadian, and that they are more educated than the general population.