March 5, 2023 | Edmonton, AB

Various community and faith groups put differences aside and gathered Sunday to help hand out warm food and wellness kits to vulnerable Edmontonians.

Volunteers from the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC), McDougall United Church, Bent Arrow and Human Concern International prepared 200 bowls of chilli and kits with hygiene items to be distributed in the downtown core.

For the past year, McDougall Church has established a relationship with MAC to share their space for prayers and community projects, explained Larry Derkach, church council chair.

“It’s been our vision to build this into a community hub that can be of much greater service to the community than we have been able to do as a small congregation,” Derkach added.

Majda Jimali, a MAC volunteer, says the two different faiths find more common ground than people think, especially when it comes to service.

“It seems inevitable that we would come together and work on these things together,” Jimali said.

“We pool our talents together,” she added. “We pool our budgets together… Everyone pooling in, pitching in makes the project bigger, and we can serve more people.”

For Laila Elkadri with Human Concern International, having diverse people makes it easier to help vulnerable Edmontonians who also come from different backgrounds.

“Bringing in that diversity and inclusivity and mixing it together and showing each other that we’re all really the same opens up our understanding of others’ backgrounds,” Elkadri told CTV News Edmonton.

Read the full article: Partnership out of McDougall United Church helps build community | CTV News

By Jessica Robb | CTV News Edmonton