By Grant Terwilliger
The Cardinal Cupboard supplies students with meal kits to celebrate the end of Ramadan and helps students on campus get the basic supplies they need.
The idea for the Ramadan meal kits originated from the Student Outreach and Support Coordinator Hakima Bachar’s own experience with fasting during the holy month of Ramadan.
“We have a large number of students that celebrate Ramadan and are Muslim, so I thought that it would be a good idea since we also do spring holiday meal kits,” Bachar said.
Unlike normal meal kits, which are prepared meals, the Ramadan meal kit was created so that you can create a meal yourself. Fasting for Ramadan ends on a Saturday, so students can pick up their meal kits on Friday in order to make a meal for either themselves or others on Saturday.
Ramadan is a religious celebration for the Muslim community. It is a month of reflecting, fasting, worship, prayer, community and giving. The month of Ramadan began with the appearance of a crescent moon on February 28th and ends with the appearance of a crescent moon on March 29. Fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam. Ramadan is the holiest month in the Islamic calendar, in which the first verses of the Quran were revealed to the prophet Mohammad by God.
“When I was fasting, I would have to wait till like 8:30 p.m. or 9:00 p.m.. So it gets hard, if you’re fasting from sunrise to sunset the whole day. It’s just nice to recognize that group of students,” Bachar said.
The Cardinal Cupboard has an important role in the community on campus to help students get the necessary basic items they need. The Cardinal Cupboard has an Instagram account where they are working to share events they are holding, as well as provide students with an outlet if they are going through hard financial times. The cupboard also provides menstrual products, winter accessories, and cookware.
“They have this information and know about it. So when it does come time, if they ever did need to use it, they know where to go and what to look for. So we’re just trying to share our resources to students, to help them,” Bachar said.
Emily Urgiles, a senior at SUNY Plattsburgh, has been an intern at the Cardinal Cupboard since the fall semester and volunteered in her freshman year at the cupboard in the H.U.B every Friday.
Urgiles works to provide more outreach for the Cardinal Cupboard, and is also working to collaborate with other clubs on campus and make the cupboard more accessible to students with dietary restrictions.
“Currently, we don’t have any products that are vegan or gluten free, as we rely on donations. After the donations I go to a department or up to a staff member, and I’ll let them know that this is what we’re looking for, and it is because we don’t receive those products regularly every week,” Urgiles said.
Urgiles is working to have more options in the Cardinal Cupboard every week by next semester. The Cardinal Cupboard is making progress to help a wider range of students.
The Cardinal Cupboard has evolved in the last couple of years from being in a closet in the H.U.B to having a designated location in Burghy’s Den. Urgiles looks forward to seeing how the cupboard will grow moving forward.
“I’m very proud of how much the cupboard has grown. I think it’s really exciting every time a student tells us that they’re very grateful and thankful that they discovered the cupboard,” Urgiles said. “I’m excited to see how it’s going to be next year.”
