Campus Groups Coming Together for Interfaith Service Project on 9/11
Goal of packaging 10,000 meals for local hunger on National Day of Service and Remembrance
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Champaign-Urbana, IL – Campus student groups will come together on September 11th for an interfaith service project with a goal of packaging more than 10,000 meals to fight local hunger.
Students will gather at 6:30 pm at the Wesley United Methodist Church and Foundation on campus to begin packaging meals and will participate in an interfaith dialogue when the project is complete.
“The reason we are organizing this event on September 11th is to look back on how 11 years ago religious intolerance lead to a horrible tragedy in American history and how misguided emotions and a lack of interfaith literacy led to discrimination, hate crimes, and other atrocities in its wake. It is only when we come together for the common good that we can stop moments like this from ever happening again,” said Masood Haque, a University of Illinois junior and a core organizer of the event.
Adham Salhoul, Interfaith in Action President and sophomore at the University added: “The significance of a food packaging event on 9/11 is found in the symbolic presence of the values of the religious and non-religious people involved. Values such as giving and the importance of community health are values that transcend all differences as American citizens, and are the catalyst to our nation’s rebuilding. At the commemoration of the tragedy that our nation experienced, we remember that out of many, we are one.”
The campus student group Interfaith in Action is leading the event, which is co-sponsored by the Muslim Students Association, Illini Hillel, and the Sikh Students Association. The meal packaging project is being facilitated through a partnership with Illini Fighting Hunger and the Illini Union Office of Volunteer Programs.
For more information, contact Masood Haque (masood@uiucinterfaith.org, 630-397-1396) or Adham Salhoul (adham@uiucinterfaith.org, 708-655-1150) or visit www.uiucinterfaith.org.
