This immigrant-owned restaurant feeds the homeless and poor for free everyday

[DesertRat]

Sakina Halal Grill in D.C.

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This immigrant-owned restaurant feeds the homeless and poor for free every single day no questions asked. He treats them as if they were full paying customers!

[tblue37]

1. K&R for visibility. nt

[sheshe2]

2. Kick. Rec.

Beautiful.

[NurseJackie]

10. I know!

[demmiblue]

3. What a wonderful person.

[ret5hd]

5. Doesn't it shine through in his voice and face?

[DesertRat]

8. Indeed it does!

I wish I lived closer and could support this wonderful man and his restaurant.

[betsuni]

4. K&R

[Meowmee]

6. K&R

❤️

[littlemissmartypants]

7. Beautiful. nt

[Kurt V.]

9. kick n rec

[mia]

11. You made my day.

Thank you for posting this.

[DesertRat]

14. My pleasure

It made mine too. I needed a good news story.

[smirkymonkey]

12. What a beautiful human being.

He is an angel on earth.

[IronLionZion]

13. They have great food, I've been there quite a few times over the years

The owner is a wonderful person

[DesertRat]

15. That's very cool.

It looks great!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

16. "I am trying to worship our Creator through food."

That is such a powerful statement. And what he is doing is truly at the core of the monotheistic religions (I don't know enough about the non-monotheistic religions to offer a comment) but all too often that message gets drowned out by other, less good ones.

I do volunteer work at a local homeless shelter, helping to feed people there. He is so right that so many of them have teeth problems, and need to have fairly soft food.

A friend of mine carries around $5.00 gift cards for McDonald's, and if she comes across a panhandler she hands out one of the gift cards. Say what you will about that chain, they are everywhere and easy to get to, and the card is at least one meal.

[DesertRat]

17. I think the McDonalds gift cards are a great idea

And it's wonderful that you for volunteer at the homeless shelter. Helping the less fortunate is love and charity in action, and a tenet of all faiths.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

19. Thank you.

I am not a conventionally religious person. Fortunately I have some friends who are a member of a faith group (which one isn't very important) and they asked me if I'd like to help their congregation in doing this.

The homeless shelter I volunteer with here in Santa Fe is formally known as the Interfaith Community Shelter, because a coalition of probably every faith group in the city participates. Informally it's known as Pete's Pets, because the facility used to be a place that sold pet supplies of all kinds.

It is remarkably gratifying to do this. Our guests are incredibly grateful for the food. We take great pride in fixing meals we'd happily serve at home or to friends. It's only a few hours of my life at any given time, and while I've been varying degrees of poor in my life, I've never been homeless or even close to homelessness. It sometimes doesn't take much, just a bad decision or two, or some kind of short run of bad luck and wham! A person has lost everything. I like to think I'm smart and good at managing money and so on, but I've also just never had the kinds of things happen to me that's happened to the people that wind up in the shelter.

[Ms. Toad]

21. This is one of the keys

We take great pride in fixing meals we'd happily serve at home or to friends.

I don't regularly volunteer at shelters, but once a year I make around 20 homemade pumpkin pies (from pumpkins, homemade butter crust, and honey & molasses as sweetener, and eggs for leavening). People who are homeless deserve a bit of luxury - so they get exactly the same pies I serve my family.

My phrasing isn't precisely the same as the restaurant owner's - but in baking for these folks I am treating them as valued and worthy human beings, or in the language of my faith community - acknowledging and honoring that of God within each of them.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

22. That is wonderful.

Making and giving away homemade pies.

It all comes down to treating others with dignity and respect.

[Judi Lynn]

18. Bless that man. He's someone from a much higher dimension.

Can you imagine what would happen in most cases if a homeless person begged for just a small bowl or plate of food?

This man will probably be remembered forever by those he has helped, and treated with respect, with so much love.

Thank you, DesertRat.

[Scurrilous]

20. K&R