In the warmth of their minivan, the four Khokhar children busily fold white triangular boxes. Then they add the two steaming hot slices of pizza they are about to deliver to people living on the streets in the downtown core.

The 15 or so volunteers gathered at Allan Gardens are with Humanity First, a non-profit organization run by the Ahmadiyya community, a small Muslim sect with more than 10,000 followers in Canada. For the last four years in Toronto the group has driven around delivering hundreds of pizzas to shelters and homeless people on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, a tradition mirrored in Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver.

Outside Seaton House, a shelter on George St., first-time volunteer Mina’am Khokhar, 11, passes a box of two cheesy slices, and a juice pack to Najeeb Tariq, 25.

Tariq hands them to a weathered man, his bright blue eyes and reddish beard shaded by a blue baseball cap.

“Bless you,” he says before hurrying back into the warmth of the shelter.

“Happy holidays,” Tariq replies.

As news of the pizza circulates, more men line up, murmuring thank you’s and happy holidays to the volunteers.

One man, leaning on a cane, a bandaged cut above one eye, gets his lunch put in a bag so he can carry it.

The goal is to feed between 400 and 500 people over the two days, said volunteer Basharat Ahmed. The pizza is bought at a discount from Topper’s Pizza using donations from the Toronto Ahmadiyya community, which also runs a food bank that makes home deliveries to families across the GTA.

The Khokhar family had not been part of the budding Christmas pizza delivery tradition before. They usually volunteer at the food bank warehouse. This year Farhan Khokhar wanted his children to get a view of the city they are sheltered from in the Brampton suburbs.

“Need is not just in far-off places,” he said.