Share Bounty With Those In Need
Anwer Mahmood Khan

I was at Seventh Street in the Los Angeles downtown area. Looking at the homeless and hungry all around, I asked, "Where am I? Am I in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where the homeless live scattered all around?"

Many years ago, visiting Sao Paulo on business, I saw a host of homeless children gathered around raising their infinitely small voices to express their plight.

But this was not Sao Paulo. It was right at home in downtown Los Angeles where it is estimated that 82,000 people are homeless.

I was among the 10 people from Baited Hammed Mosque who decided to buy meals from a fast-food restaurant to distribute among 250 to 300 homeless people in the downtown area.

During this distribution, when I reached to a person in a wheelchair and gave her the food, she told me that this was her first meal in 48 hours and she thanked me for the gesture. Another person was so pleased to receive food from us that with great passion he expressed all the prayers and good wishes that he knew.

It added a great deal of happiness to our group when we saw that some churches were engaged in sharing cooked meals of rice and beans at a neighboring street. All of us felt great after the meals were quickly eaten.

It certainly gave us a reason to reflect on hunger in the world and in our own cities. Mother Earth can produce more food than we need; it is our man-made systems that fail to administer this supply equitably or provide sustenance to all.

All religions teach us that feeding the poor is a virtuous act. We urge all the Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, followers of Taoism, Zoarasts and followers of Confucius that we all should pick a day or a weekend and feed the poor in the entire area of downtown Los Angeles.

God has bestowed upon us the provision of food in abundance and we enjoy sumptuous meals day in and day out. Let us thank our creator by sharing a few meals with our brethren who are less fortunate than we are. If you are interested in joining us in this noble pursuit, please contact us at chinomosque@gmail.com.