Nonprofits Make Qurbani Food Deliveries To In-Need Essex Families

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — A pair of nonprofits in North Jersey recently teamed up to make door-to-door deliveries of food to in-need families in Essex County.

Embrace Relief, an international humanitarian aid group based in Fairfield, holds several donation drives every year, which tie into different holidays and themes. Earlier this month, Embrace Relief helped to spearhead a food drive in Essex County as a nod to Qurbani, working in partnership with New Spring Foundation, a New Jersey nonprofit dedicated to assist people who have been in prison and their families.

Why Qurbani? Embrace Relief explains more on its website:

“According to the United Nations, over 820 million people are experiencing food insecurity right now. This number is expected to rapidly increase in lieu of the COVID-19 pandemic, rising unemployment, financial and economic downfall, and political and civil unrest worldwide. Embrace Relief’s various International Hunger Relief Campaigns are designed to combat the international hunger crisis and help as many people as possible around the globe - but this cannot be done without your help. This year, Qurbani [was] held from July 10 to July 13. During this time, sheep, goats, and cattle are humanely and hygienically sacrificed, meaning it adheres to common dietary restrictions. During the celebration of Qurbani, many people donate meat packages to those who do not have access or financial resources to purchase meat, which makes Qurbani the one time per year these families can get it.”

Embrace Relief released a video that documents the campaign; watch it below.

“The YouTube video highlights one of the many distribution efforts related to this program, in this case in Essex County,” a spokesperson told Patch. “Our office is in Fairfield, and so we are especially sensitive to supporting our closest neighbors in Essex and Passaic.”

“This particular video highlights members of our staff joining volunteers from our partner, New Spring Foundation, in making door-to-door deliveries of food to families in need last weekend in Newark, West Orange, East Orange, Irvington and other towns,” he added.

The spokesperson added:

“The distribution of the meat capped off a very successful Qurbani campaign for us. In the U.S. alone, we served meat packages to 5,220 families this month, reaching more than 31,000 people. (In addition to New Jersey, we also were delivering food to folks in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Texas.) Internationally, we also distributed meat to 66,000 people in 11 countries during this most recent campaign, for a worldwide Qurbani 2022 total of 97,000 people served.”

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