NEW JERSEY – Bidding farewell to the holy fasting month of Ramadan, dozens of American Muslim volunteers have come together in New Jersey to prepare food packs to the less fortunate, helping the needy to mark a special `Eid Al-Fitr.

“We live here and are rooted here,” Salim Patel, a financial planner, told North Jersey.com on Sunday, July 3.

“Our friends and family are here and we have come across people and individuals who are suffering from poverty and we wanted to help.”

For years, Patel said he and his friends had watched their parents in the US work hard and send money to families and poor people back in their native countries.

But feeling a personal connection to their own communities, they wanted to help at home in North Jersey.

Cooperating with his friends, Tariq Hussein and Haris Mahmood, Patel gathered enough capital and resources to launch a charitable non-profit, and The SMILE Organization was born.

Supporting Muslims and non-Muslims alike, SMILE has grown enormously from its origins and is marking its five-year anniversary.

The food pantry serves 1,200 people each month. It is one of just two food pantries in the city of Passaic and the only “choice” pantry in the county — meaning that people can choose the items they want to receive.

That helps families with food restrictions, including those who eat only halal food. Others, who are homeless, may want items that don’t require cooking, said Meher Mohsin, the director of operations and development.

SMILE also runs an annual “Rose for Ramadan” program to distribute food boxes to Muslim families in New Jersey and New York City during Ramadan packed with rice, dates, olive oil, meat vouchers and other goods.

“We have great support,” Mohsin said.

“We are doing comprehensive work here trying to create a shift in the community to end poverty.”

Appreciated

Appreciating SMILE’s efforts, Passaic Mayor Alex Blanco visited and volunteered on June 4 and the city issued a proclamation in May recognizing the organization’s five-year anniversary.

“Out there in the media, we are in the spotlight in a negative way,” Sinah Ghannam, 27, the food pantry coordinator, said about Muslims.

“For them to see we are there and helping the community, Muslims and non-Muslims as well, it is something good for them to see and to be part of.”

Ghannam said about half of the group’s volunteers are non-Muslims.

Zahid Bukhari, executive director of the Center for Islam and Public Policy, a research center in Washington, DC, said that Muslims became more active in political and civic life after the Sept. 11.

Their activities included taking part in disaster relief, food pantries, women’s shelters, charities and interfaith outreach.

“It’s because it’s a mandate in our faith tradition,” Patel said.

“Helping people is part of our faith.”