I answered my phone; silence for a while, a sure sign of telemarketer’s call from automatic dialer. It dials hundreds of telephone, until a phone answered by a human being. Telemarketer scrambles to make the call, as he has been working on something else. There is a time lag, momentary silence which gives away his presence. I have developed a strategy against telemarketer by hanging up when I detect the tell tale silence.

I was about to hang up, then a small, elderly, male voice came “Is it MuslimServ?” It was hesitating, timid voice afraid to speak up. I said “Yes, we are MuslimServ”. He said “you distribute chicken, don’t you?” soliciting my agreement. “Yes” I said. “But I never ever get chicken at my food bank” he said in a matter of fact voice. I have heard this complaint hundreds of time before and my canned answer is “Our donation of meat is so small compared to demand that not every one gets it” then I informed caller that our next delivery was on 24th of August at the Daily Bread Food Bank. I also gave him a telephone number at the Daily Bread to find out about delivery. He lived in Parkdale, a heavy immigrant neighborhood and far away from Daily Bread. He will have to change busses and negotiate subway. I called Daily Bread to look out for an elderly client and to make sure he gets a kilo of chicken. All his effort was for $3.00 worth of meat.

Many Muslims have impression that Muslims in Canada are some how immune to hunger and that government subsidy is sufficient, but the sad fact is that dole is designed just to keep one alive. Please read the stories of our clients at the home page.