Farah Khan is a board member of the Islamic Center and a volunteer coordinator for the seniors’ luncheon. Every Tuesday, she signs in the attendees and ensures every senior gets a meal. Khan has been involved with the lunch since it began in the fall of 2024.
“Every day, we are waiting for Tuesday to come here from 11 to 2, so it’s a great facility for us,” she said.
According to Khan, there are 40 to 50 seniors at each lunch from across the Capital Region. The Albany County Department for Aging sponsors congregations at 24 locations throughout the county, intended to provide seniors over 60 years old with nutritious meals and have an opportunity to get together. The county-subsidized meals are provided by restaurants – at the Islamic Center they are provided by Falafel Express, a Mediterranean restaurant in Latham.
Halal translates to “permissible” in Arabic, and primarily refers to Islamic guidelines for slaughtering meat, but is often used to describe practices that adhere to the faith in Muslims’ daily lives, like not consuming alcohol or pork.
According to Dr. Mussarat Chaudhry, a now-retired radiologist and an Albany resident since 1971, the program evolved from a women’s weekly gathering that had existed since the 1990s into one that she hoped would include all Muslim seniors in the community.
“Then as we get older, then we started to realize that, you know, we need to form a group for the seniors and in the women's group, my concern was that women showed up, but men never did," she said. "And it was important as we get older to keep that connection and meet, to have, you know, to talk, to have a meal.”
Chaudhry and other women in the group had a series of meetings with Deborah Riitano, the former commissioner for the Albany County Department for Aging, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, to plan an accessible option for Muslim seniors in the county.
According to Riitano, the Tuesday lunch at the Islamic Center of the Capital District is the only one in the state that provides a hot halal meal option specifically for seniors. While halal options for meals are available for seniors in areas with larger Muslim populations like in New York City, they are only available as frozen meals that seniors can get delivered from a community center.
Accessibility to culturally appropriate food was a priority for her in her role, as she also worked to expand kosher meal delivery options at the County Department for Aging.
“I think it's really important to know that culturally appropriate food isn't a luxury," she said. "It's a component of healthy aging.”
Riitano said the congregate meals at the Islamic Center foster community.
“It's a wonderful setting at the mosque, beautiful setting, as a matter of fact," she said. "And it helps preserve cultural identity for the seniors who probably grew up on Halal meals. They get a really well balanced meal. Besides the food being monitored, the meal builds trust.”
Chaudhry said when the regular programs like the luncheon and a mosque like Islamic Center of the Capital District did not seem possible when the mosque was first established in 1978.
“We were just five families when we used to get together in the basement of the hospital we worked at, or one of those universities or things like that," she said. "And gradually we grew and in 1978 we built this building that's on the side here as our first little mosque in the area.”
The director of the ICCD, Ismail Alzabi, said the seniors’ luncheon was one of several options for seniors he was interested in starting at the center, as he is also working on educational programs to aid seniors.
“A lot of them were actually sitting at home for a long time that have not been doing anything for many, many months of, or maybe the most of the year," he said. "And this brought some joy for them and a meaning that they have this lunch every weekend and that they enjoy and talk to other members and learn something that might benefit them and also be useful for the community. It's very, very vital.”
The gathering also always includes a break for the afternoon prayer, Zuhr, after which the seniors trickle out and wrap up their meals or pack up the leftovers for home.
Masood Khan, an Albany resident since 1988, said the lunches allow him to stay in touch with friends he does not always get a chance to see.
“I enjoy the company of our friends," he said. "We seldom meet each other generally, and now we see each other every week, and that’s very nice. It’s good companionship, that’s the best thing about the program.”
