The results are in from this year's 'Share the Spirit of Ramadan Food Drive'.
Muslims of Windsor Share the Spirit of Ramadan Food Drive Coordinator Sousan Khaled says the 20th annual event raised more than $21,000, topping the fundraising goal of $17,000.
"Our goal was $17,000 and in my head I thought wouldn't it be great to get $20,000 at the 20th year and we ended up over that, like $21,000 and a bit," says Khaled.
She says the annual food drive assists 17 area food bank and each food bank will be receiving a grocery gift card next month of $1,260.
Khaled says they reached their fundraising goal early this year.
"It was kind of shocking, I couldn't believe it," says Khaled. "Usually I'm just waiting until the last minute to make sure we get there and then person after person kept coming and giving donations and they wanted to be the one that got us to our goal and then a gentleman came and he wrote $1,000 cheque and it was just so beautiful, I couldn't believe it. It was just sort a beautiful thing."
She says she's proud of the community.
"I'm just grateful to everybody in the community for coming out, Muslims and not," she says. "Anybody else who was at the mall that day shared in that spirit and they saw it."
The yearly food drive took place this past Sunday, March 23 at Devonshire Mall in front of Hudson's Bay.
Khaled says in the last six-years, almost $130,000 has been raised for area food banks.