'Serving' their city
Hamza Deib’s family was forced to close its restaurants when business dropped by 90 percent during the coronavirus pandemic — but that didn’t mean they stopped serving others.
Deib, 28, his brother Anas and their seven other siblings have been cooking and donating meals to the community throughout the crisis — paid for largely out of their own pocket.
“It’s either we’re going to sit here and just be bitter about it and not do anything or we do what’s right and go out there and see who needs food,” said Deib, of Islip, LI.
“We’re not just going to sit back and do nothing.”
At first, Deib and his family were serving about 100 meals a day to hospitals and police departments, using the large stockpile of inventory they had at their two Taheni restaurants in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and in Hells Kitchen, Manhattan.
But then food pantries, homeless shelters and nonprofits started reaching out for help, so the Deib family expanded. They’re now cooking and serving 1,000 meals a day.
During the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, they worked day and night for 30 days in a row to run a makeshift soup kitchen in Manhattan while they were fasting.
Typically, Ramadan is a time for family gatherings, but in a socially distanced world, that was no longer possible, Deib said.
“Growing up, our mother was very focused on always wanting to give back and always wanting to feed people so we literally just took this moment of what our mother did for Ramadan every single year,” he said.
Deib said his family didn’t really start taking donations until recent weeks, after a video about their efforts spread online and people started reaching out.
They plan to continue feeding the homeless after the pandemic ends.
“As Muslims, we truly believe that charity is an act of goodness that will only increase somebody’s wealth . . . Do good, good will come for you too,” Deib said.
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