These halal carts are giving away free meals for Ramadan

Before our current crisis, New York’s Muslim community would be able to break fast at a mosque, but the citywide restrictions on spaces that draw crowds—religious centers included—has made these intimate communal gatherings harder. 

According to the Bklyner., several organizations—including Pakistani American Youth Society (PAYS) and NYPD Muslim Officers Society—have banded together in collaboration with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams to launch four halal carts that will serve up free halal iftar meals in Brooklyn and Queens.  

For those with dietary restrictions, finding ingredients they can eat—such as halal-friendly meat—can be a challenge when some people continue to panic shop. During the holy holiday of Ramadan, the carts will be dispatched to neighborhoods such as Midwood, Brighton Beach and Bay Ridge. The site reports that, “meals will be given out every single day during the month-long Ramadan from 6 to 8:30 pm,” with enough food to feed 1,000 people on a given day. 

These efforts join the growing number of ways that food carts are finding ways to help during the current crisis. The New York Food Truck Association has helped raise money to position food carts at NYU Langone Medical Center to distribute meals for frontline healthcare workers. The program also helps hire owners of the food trucks, who have lost work due to the fact that most people are obeying stay-at-home orders, which have left New York streets empty. 

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