Muslim youth donate 600 pounds of food to Avalon food bank
As the province continues to see high rates of food insecurity, communities are coming together this holiday season to make sure households have food on the table
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association may have just seven members in the province, but it wanted to help stock up the Conception Bay South/Paradise Community Food Bank this holiday season, says Arsalan Ahmed, president of the association’s Atlantic Canada chapter. The group donated 600 lbs of non-perishable food items.
Donations are one of the main pillars of Islam, says Ahmed, and the community wanted to give back. “This country is providing a lot of things for us [and] this time of the year [it] is like our responsibility and our duty to provide them back.”
Visits to Newfoundland and Labrador food banks increased by more than 8 per cent in 2024-2025, according to a Food Bank Canada.
Roughly 30 per cent of the province struggled with food insecurity in 2024, making Newfoundland and Labrador the province with the third-highest food insecurity rate in Canada. Newfoundland and Labrador is also tied with New Brunswick for the highest number of children experiencing food-insecurity. Nearly 40 per cent of kids in the province live in food-insecure households.
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The local donations are part of an annual nationwide initiative through which the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association provides food to support food banks and charitable organizations across Canada.
Ahmed, the 30-year-old Imam (religious leader) of the Baitul Ehsaan Mosque (House of Grace) in CBS says the group asked the Ahmadiyya community in Newfoundland—consisting of roughly a dozen families—for food or monetary donations. The youth association consists of members aged 15 to 40.
Ahmed says that Atlantic chapter distributed over 1,300 pounds of food between New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. A spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association says 300,000 pounds of food have been donated nationwide.
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