As a gesture of support, in the aftermath of the government shut down, the ISB decided to serve a hot meal to the TSA agents at Hartsfield Jackson International Airport on Friday February 1st, 2019. It was a great team effort by all the volunteers from ISB who were able to serve over 350 TSA team members.

The ISB volunteer teams visited the TSA break rooms at both the domestic and international terminals, which were just around the corner from the actual TSA checkpoint on both sides of the airport.  Tables were cleaned and food was set up with stereo burners to serve a hot, delicious meal to the hard-working TSA team.

Chaplain Adrien Neely also joined us, as he played a key role in connecting us with the TSA leadership to make the meal a possibility.  He gave the ISB team a tour of the newly renovated chapel, which also displays the name of the ISB as a donor for the artwork on display.

The domestic team was made up of Soumaya, Dr. Mohamed Khalifa, Heba, and ISB supporter Ameer Muhammad, who photographed and video graphed the whole event.  On the International team were Manaal, Amani, Lamia and Huma.  The delicious food was catered by Nasser and included huge trays of lasagna, veggie and meat pasta, salad and bread.  The TSA team was absolutely touched and thrilled and thanked us while we stood waiting on them.  They also packed food to take along with them.  The ISB team thanked all the agents for their professionalism and service and for being there when they were not getting paid during the shutdown.

Everyone was so very appreciative of the gesture.   One lesson that we can carry forward from this event is that we should not wait for events like a government shutdown to be able to do something like this!

By Huma Faruqi.