Peace Islands Institute donates platefuls of generosity

Peace Islands Institute, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, donates meat to Toni's Kitchen in Montclair on Sept. 27. Pictured from left are: Ann Mernin, Director of Toni’s Kitchen, Montclair; Assemblyman Thomas P. Giblin; Lolita Cruz, Chief of Staff, Assembly Giblin; Ercan Tozan, Executive Director Peace Island Institute; Savan Metin, Program Analyst Embrace Relief  Lindsey Kelleher/NorthJersey.com
Peace Islands Institute, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, donates meat to Toni's Kitchen in Montclair on Sept. 27. Pictured from left are: Ann Mernin, Director of Toni’s Kitchen, Montclair; Assemblyman Thomas P. Giblin; Lolita Cruz, Chief of Staff, Assembly Giblin; Ercan Tozan, Executive Director Peace Island Institute; Savan Metin, Program Analyst Embrace Relief Lindsey Kelleher/NorthJersey.com


Date posted: October 21, 2017

Lindsey Kelleher

When volunteers at Toni’s Kitchen get together, it’s all about fostering friendships with one another while cooking for people who to get day-to-day meals.

On a Thursday morning this October, about a dozen volunteers did just that as they made 150 stuffed peppers for people in need, including low-income families and senior citizens.

The peppers were stuffed with meat the kitchen receives every year as part of an annual holiday tradition in the Muslim religion from the Peace Islands Institute, a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization. Founded by Turkish-Americans of North Jersey, the institute aims to promote peace and understanding among members of different religions.

“It’s a beautiful distribution of meat, and it’s high-quality protein,” said Anne Mernin, executive director at Toni’s Kitchen.

Peace Islands Institute has a New Jersey branch in Hasbrouck Heights and other branches in Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. The institute first reached out to Toni’s Kitchen about five years ago, offering to donate the meat. The institute also donates meat to other food banks and pantries in North Jersey such as St. Peter’s Haven in Clifton.

Assemblyman Thomas P. Giblin, a Montclair resident whose legislative district includes Montclair, Clifton, East Orange and Orange, accompanied Peace Islands Institute Program Director Mel Turk on Sept. 27 to donate meat to Toni’s Kitchen and St. Peter’s Haven.

In a statement, Giblin said, “The extreme generosity of the Peace Islands Institute during the observance of Eid al Adha demonstrates great community spirit and willingness to help families in need.”

Kevin Donahue, executive director at St. Peter’s Haven, said, “We like to serve meat as part of the package we serve people. The meat is an important part of the healthy diet.”

The meat is donated as part of the annual Eid al-Adha/Kurban Bayrami celebration, which is the Festival of Sacrifice in the Muslim religion. Eid al-Adha commemorates the Prophet Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son at God’s command, and marks the end of Muslims’ annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

As part of the celebration, an animal — usually, but not always, a sheep — is slaughtered and the meat is given to family members and people in need.

“We celebrate with family and poor people in the neighborhood,” said Levent Koc, former executive director of the Peace Islands Institute. “It’s a time to stop and think about your neighbors and your relatives.”

Donating the meat is done not only to help those in the community who are less fortunate but also as a way to bridge cultural and religious differences between Muslims and non-Muslims.

“We were so impressed with the story behind the donation,” said Mernin.

Peace Islands Institute was created by Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric who is exiled from Turkey and resides in Pennsylvania. He is the founder of the Hizmet movement, an organization focused on human values.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan holds Gulen and his followers accountable for a 2016 insurrection in which about 300 people were killed when portions of the military staged a coup.

Koc noted that members of the Turkish community are inspired by Gulen’s ideas, but added that a main focus of the Peace Islands Institute is to promote understanding, respect, acceptance and diversity among residents.

“When we help, we cannot discriminate. We try to help all people,” Koc said.

Peace Islands Institute Executive Director Ercan Tozan said he reaches out to churches and synagogues about projects and community-based activities the institutions can do together.

Tozan said Peace Islands Institute has organized many events since the group was founded in 2003, originally as the Interfaith Dialogue Center, and continues to do so today.

“We’re still trying to reach out. I’ve knocked on doors at churches and synagogues and have met with new reverends and pastors,” Tozan said.

Annual Thanksgiving dinners; Ramadan dinners; Abraham Table Discussion programs, in which leaders from different religions discuss a topic from their religions’ standpoints; and “friendship gatherings,” which offer community activities after Islamic services, are among community activities and events Peace Islands Institute has initiated.

Peace Islands Institute also has more than 100 volunteers who help out in places such as food banks.

It is organizing an essay contest for middle and high school students.

“Basically, all religions promote peace and love,” Tozan said. “No matter what, you have to bring people together to get to know each other.”

As for feeding people with the donated meat, volunteers from Toni’s Kitchen enjoyed both cooking it and working with one another to help others.

“It’s great helping the community,” said Maria Rios, a volunteer at Toni’s Kitchen.

“I’m having a great experience here,” noted Rios as she waited for the meat to finish cooking so it could be added into the peppers along with carrots and seasonings.

Source: NorthJersey.Com , October 17, 2017


Related News

Kimse Yok Mu volunteer physicians bring light to eyes in Darfur

A Kimse Yok Mu ophthalmologists Ferruh Bican revealed that 53 volunteer doctors brought light to the blind by performing a total of 80 thousand eye exams and over 12 thousand cataract surgeries in Darfur, Somalia. “Saturday Gatherings” organized by BIK (Turkey Press Bulletin Authority) branch office in the province Denizli was hosted by Kimse Yok Mu Denizli […]

Kimse Yok Mu’s free eye surgeries project inaugurated in Pakistan

Country Director Turkish Non Governmental Organization Kimse Yok MU Ozcan Inan along with Chairman REDO Sultan Hassan inaugurated a welfare project for deserving patients at Rawalpindi Eye Donors Organization’s Medical Complex

Peace Valley Foundation recognizes reporter, teacher, preacher for community work

At about the same time tonight, April 18, 2013, that a keeper of the peace at Massachusetts Institute of Technology was fatally wounded by gunshots; in the same week that some vicious destructors left bags of explosive shrapnel aimed at runners, family and children at the finish line of the Boston Marathon; in the same […]

Award-winning US screenwriter: Without freedom of speech and media, we’re all slaves

Terry Spencer Hesser, director of the first feature-length movie about Fethullah Gülen and the Hizmet movement, a grassroots initiative inspired by the Islamic scholar, spoke to Sunday’s Zaman at the Strasbourg screening of the biopic titled “Love Is a Verb,”

Kimse Yok Mu gears up to assist Malian refugees

Kimse Yok Mu continues its help to Malians left homeless in the ongoing civil war around the country. Donations delivered to the country are ready to be distributed. Building bridges between philanthropists and the needy, Kimse Yok Mu has once again taken action to aid war-stricken people of Mali. The association, which has delivered donations […]

A Case Study In How Lobbyists For Turkish Government Manipulate The American Media on Gulen Issue

Turkish news outlets lit up this weekend after a former Republican lawmaker published an op-ed at The Hill calling on the U.S. government to extradite Fethullah Gulen, an exiled Muslim cleric whose return to Turkey is an obsession for the NATO nation’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Latest News

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

University refuses admission to woman jailed over Gülen links

In Case You Missed It

İpek Holding chairman denies reports about alleged mansion for Gülen

Turkey Carries Out Major NATO Purge

‘Washington has no interest in using Gülen against AKP,’ former US envoy says

Turkish daily exposes secret plot against Gülen endorsed by gov’t

The Gulen Movement Is Not a Cult — It’s One of the Most Encouraging Faces of Islam Today

This man stood up to Trump. In Turkey he was branded a terrorist

Turkish school in Romania moves to new building

Copyright 2023 Hizmet News