Today’s Drive-Thru Iftar was a little bit different.
It was sponsored by Islamic Relief Canada, that’s the same part.
The Drive-Thru Iftar was in front of an Islamic School, that’s the slightly different part.
Ummati Centre in Brampton, is a one storey building located at 205 County Court Blvd, just north of highway 407 and within line of sight of Peel Region’s courthouse on Hurontario Street.
County Court Boulevard should instead be a Crescent as its roadway starts and ends at Hurontario Street.
So when you’re looking for the exact address, you’ll find it on the south portion of the Boulevard.
Their building is home to both an Islamic Centre and a Learning Centre.
The Ummati Islamic Centre is open for Friday Jumah with four scheduled prayers, and then usually open only for Maghrib and Isha.
We arrived at 6 o’clock, the scheduled start time for the Drive-Thru Iftar pick up.
6 p.m. was also about the time students were letting out of their regular Tuesday Maktab Islamic Studies classes.
Vehicles arriving in the parking lot were a mix of parents picking up their children, plus people waiting to pick up Iftars.
We were in the second group.
Ramadan is a Month of Patience as well as being the Month of the Qur’an and the Month of Fasting.
We were informed by a volunteer going from car window to car window that the brother delivering the Iftars tonight was stuck in traffic and he would be here in 17 minutes.
“17” minutes ?
Not 15 minutes, nor 20 minutes ?
That 17 number might be what his smartphone traffic routing app is calculating and telling him.
It didn’t feel like 17 minutes.
To ensure our line of cars didn’t back up onto County Court Blvd proper, a volunteer had used this 17 minute delay to double-park us into two lines of cars in front of the Ummati Centre.
MashAllah, that was wise.
Soon enough the food arrives.
Volunteers begin asking passengers the number of Iftars to be picked up tonight.
Volunteers handing out tonight’s Iftar Dinners.
While we were waiting, some number of students were still waiting for their families to pick them up after classes.
The parking spaces to the right side of us remained free of cars and acts as a lay-by for parents to pick up their kids.
A little bit of Ehsan between everybody went a long way in making tonight’s double use of the overall parking space run smoothly.
Also running smoothly was Islamic Relief Canada running the Iftar Drive-Thru.
Our turn.
How many?
Four Iftars for four of us.
Four Iftar Dinners picked up.
Islamic Relief Canada Donation Flyer also picked up.
Ever drive around town with a vehicle full for Iftar Dinners in the back?
When you step back and think about it, a lot of logistics and work plus volunteers to do that work, are needed to make any Drive-Thru Iftar happen.
Tonight’s Drive-Thru Iftar was sponsored by Islamic Relief Canada in Support of Yemen.
Dropping cash in the box is just as fast as tapping your card.
The brother asks us to wait as he runs off to collect some gifts for us before we leave.
We advance forward to allow the cars behind us to also advance for their Iftar pick up.
You can also see the double line up of cars.
I guess each of these gift bundles had to be made on the spot, rather than being pre-bound, because the number of occupants per vehicle wasn’t known for sure ahead of time.
Swag!
Portable Prayer Mat with Qiblah Compass.
Can we use the Qiblah finder compass to find our direction home?
Heading north on Hurontario, looking back at the one storey Ummati Centre in Brampton.
Tabling for tonight’s Iftar Dinner.
There is still a lot of time before Maghrib Sunset Time, but I wanted to know what was in the box.
First it’s a round box, from Zauq Mississauga.
The food is a mix of Pakistani, Indian & Hakka Chinese cuisine.
Two types of chicken, two small samosas, side container of raita, the lightly spiced yogurt.
Did I already mention that there was still a lot of time before Maghrib Sunset ?
