Community advocates gathered outside an apartment complex in Minneapolis’ Cedar-Riverside neighborhood Feb. 6 to distribute food to hundreds of residents displaced by recent flooding.
ICNA Relief area manager Eshraga Omer said residents’ needs are greater now because Ramadan is weeks away.
“They really need us to bring our food for them — cultural food,” Omer said while helping to unload hundreds of boxes filled with oils, spices, rice and other goods.
The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) partnered with ICNA Relief to distribute meals on Friday at the Echo Building in Riverside Plaza, the colorful, modernist landmark that hosts a large Somali population.
Suleiman Adan, a deputy executive director with CAIR-MN, said last weekend’s flooding affected around 100 families out of nearly 200 within the building.
“Some folks described it like the Titanic: pipes bursting out from around them, inside the stairwell, spilling into the units, above kitchen appliances,” Adan said, adding that neighbors in adjacent buildings helped residents in need.
“They came together before when ICE was terrorizing their neighborhood,” Adan said.
DFL state Sen. Omar Fateh called on Minnesotans to help people affected by the situation on Jan. 30, adding that it was an “all hands on deck” situation. Fateh later shared photos and videos from inside the building, recording collapsed ceiling tiles, waterlogged boxes of possessions and flood water pooling from building stairwells.
