The Jaffari Community Centre in Toronto has won a Sustainability Award for great practice during Ramadhan.
The centre welcomed 1,500 members of the community every evening for iftaar, generating huge amounts of waste.
But its green eco policies have made it a role model for the city.
Jamaat president Habib Meghjee explains how they did it:
“We catered for approximately 1,500 people on average to come and break fast in the evening at the Jaffari Community Centre,” he said. “On June 2, we had an interfaith iftaar where we hosted many people from the wider community.
Amazing team of volunteers
“The most common question I got was how do we manage to cater (for dinner) for 1,500 people on a daily basis 30 days in a row? You can’t eat and just go home! The place has to be cleaned and be ready for next programs or recitation of the holy Qur’an, lectures, prayers, etc. Well the answer is: we have an amazing team of volunteers who make it happen day in day out!
“Now consider the amount of waste and garbage 1,500 people would create on a daily basis for 30 consecutive days?
Environmentally friendly
“Not to worry – we encouraged our participants to bring cutlery from home, used environmentally friendly supplies and also used compost bins, reused and recycled our supplies.
“I am delighted and proud that this was recognized by the wider community and on May 30th the Jaffari Community Centre was awarded the 2019 York Region Sustainability Award.”