For many Muslims, a community isn’t necessarily about neighbors and borders. It is any place where one can reach out to help those in need.

This help is actually a part of the Islamic faith, which urges its followers to help the needy regardless of faith and ethnicity.

In a perfect demonstration of thses tenets, a Muslim restaurant has organized volunteers and traveled to Nashville to prepare and deliver food for people in shelters affected by Tuesday’s deadly tornado.

After deadly tornadoes swept through Middle Tennessee and downtown Nashville, the award-winning Knoxville Yassin’s Falafel House restaurants in Knoxville organized volunteers to travel there and help out after the devastation.

There, they partnered with local organizations to cook and deliver food for over 200 people in shelters and for first responders, according to a post on Yassin’s Falafel House Facebook page.

“After hearing about the tornado in Nashville and what’s happened, we are here to help the community and show them we are part of this community and we are proud to be here with them,” Yassin Terou, owner of Yassin’s Falafel House said, Daily News Journal reported.

Severe storms and at least one tornado slammed through central Tennessee, killing 24 people and wrecking hundreds of buildings hours before dawn on Tuesday.

Hours after the powerful storm, volunteers began to clean up the numerous homes, restaurants, and churches, like the East End United Methodist in Nashville, that were left in ruins.

Help Teams

Terou and a team of volunteers traveled to Nashville Tuesday to start cooking, but ran into issues having “functioning kitchens,” said Murfreesboro Muslim Youth director Abdou Kattih.

“So we decided to cook here in Murfreesboro,” said Kattih, who named the project “We Stand with Nashville.”

In 2011, the Syrian native came to America as a refugee and opened his falafel restaurant.

Over the past years, the restaurant has become a pillar in his community and a gathering place for people from all backgrounds and walks of life.

Yassin’s Falafel House received the 2018 “Nicest Places in America” award and was featured on “Good Morning America.”