IIOK employees packing lunches for the Meat up and Eat up Program – Photo by The AANews

DEARBORN — Local mosques are often urged to address social issues beyond religious services and funerals.

A group of spirited women at the Islamic Institute of Knowledge is answering the call. C-ASIST is providing free, healthy meals for children under the age of 18 throughout the summer. The “Meet Up and Eat Up” program is one of many initiatives that C-ASIST is organizing.

In the coming months, the Institute will host a forum on mental health, provide English as a Second Language classes for adults and start a job training program.

The food project is funded by a state grant.

Nancy Berry, the founder of C-ASIST, said the program is welcoming to children of all religions and backgrounds.

“The goal is no child would be left hungry,” she said.

Besides serving food at the Institute, the group is also delivering meals to other sites that host children, including HYPE Athletics.

“Any child can come,” Berry said. “There’s no trail of documentation, nothing. Just walk in and eat.”

Najwa Dahdah, a board member of C-ASIST who owns a child care consulting company, came up with the idea of hosting a feeding site for children at the IIOK. She said what makes the Institute’s meals special is that they are home cooked, not processed.

Berry added that the food meets the FDA’s nutrition guidelines and exceeds the recommended portions.

“They’re Arab portions; let’s leave it at that,” she said.

On Tuesday morning, the Institute’s chefs and volunteers packed plastic boxes of rice mujadara with pieces of tomato and cucumber.

The C-ASIST founder said the mosque’s board and spiritual leadership are supportive of the group’s efforts.

IIOK chairman Fouad Berry, Nancy Berry’s husband, who was packing mujadara for the food program, described C-ASIST members as the most energetic ladies he has ever met.

“This is all their project; they’re the brains about this whole thing,” he said.

Fouad Berry said Ayatollah Abdul Latif Berry, the spiritual leader of the IIOK, is also pleased with the C-ASIST work.

“We don’t want to be known just as a religious institute; we want to help the community with whatever we can, not just religiously,” he said. “But at the same time, religious and social goes hand in hand.”

On July 14, C-ASIST will host an informational session for Child Associate Credential Training and present avenues for participants to get child care certificates.

“The mission of this is to empower women, to push them into the workforce,” Nancy Berry said. “The ones who don’t have the privilege to go to college or don’t have the means, they can get certified and jump back to the workforce in the child care business.”

Dahdah added that the program is also open to men.

C-ASIST is also arranging ESL classes at the religious center for July 18, which, according to Berry, are filling quickly with refugees.

The biggest and most important C-ASIST project is a conference on mental health that is scheduled for the beginning of August, Berry said. The local Arab American community has suffered about a dozen suicides over the past two years, as institutions and professionals struggle to break down the mental health stigma.

The Institute of Knowledge mental health conference will host renowned professors and community leaders, Nancy Berry said.

Zeina Berry, a pharmacist and C-ASIST board member, said the group will engage college students and diverse groups in the forum.

“We’re organizing a suicide prevention walk; it’s going to be followed by a wellness picnic at Hemlock Park,” she said. “This is to alleviate the stigma that we have in the community, with people committing suicide on a regular basis, that we know about and don’t know about.”

Zeina Berry said C-ASIST and the Institute of Knowledge want to address mental health from a medical, not a spiritual, perspective.

“There are signs that tell you this is not a simple devil’s whisper; this is a disease — a treatable disease,” she said. “This is where we’re coming in to clarify this idea.”

The mental health event will also address drug abuse, which Zeina Berry said is rampant in our community.

C-ASIST members stressed the importance of collaborating with other groups, across religious and ethnic divides.

Nancy Berry said C-ASIST is trying to bring the community together and diminish the barriers between people.

“The stigma and the stereotyping, we need to put that behind us, especially when someone is doing wonderful things for the community,” Dahdah, a Christian, said.