Bangladeshi Americans turned heroes in Buffalo blizzard

From providing free food to sheltering people, Bangladeshi Americans turned saviours for the locals

Last month, when the East Coast was gearing up for a winter storm, Buffalo, the second-largest city in New York was among the worst hit.

For four days the storm raged with a lethal combination of snow and winds as high as 70 miles per hour, rendering the locals without any electricity, heat and often food.

The storm pelted over 36 inches of snow in the Buffalo area. During these difficult hours, an unpretentious community emerged as local heroes.

A group of Bangladeshi Americans in the area got together to form a coordinated unit and began sending essential supplies, food, medicines and even sheltering locals who found themselves stuck without heat and electricity. The young men went over and beyond to help others often putting themselves in precarious conditions.

Talking to the American Bazaar over phone from Buffalo, Mohammad Alam who is the co-owner of the local Love Birds restaurant describes how the Bangla community got into the forefront of the crisis.

“The storm began on Friday and by Saturday, we knew that we are in a very dangerous situation. The city lost electricity,” he recalled.

“My partner at Love Birds restaurant, Manik Majumdar lives on the floor above our restaurant. He came to me at around three in the night on Saturday and said that on his Bangladeshi community group he could see a lot of people asking for help.”

“My chef was also stuck at the restaurant and immediately my partner decided we should arrange to provide food to the people,” Alam said.

“We began cooking and sent food to at least 7-8 families close to our restaurant. The word began spreading and soon we got in touch with other locals to reach more people.”

As the situation intensified and many found themselves trapped at home, unable to get out due to heavy snow or without electricity, the Bengali American community decided to launch a coordinated effort to help people across communities in Buffalo.

Carlanda Meadors, a local community organizer who is associated with the support group Most Valuable Parent, also told the American Bazaar on phone from Buffalo about her group’s efforts.

”My friend Mohammad Osman reached out to me and said he was helping to organize a rescue team from his community to help people get home and would also get his community restaurant and friends to cook food for those in need and if I could tell him who needs help,” she said.

“I told him that I am in the Buffalo Blizzard group and will reach out to people through my social media pages. Mia Ayers-Goss, the director of MVP pushed it to our network of parents and they started submitting names by text.”

“We would then put them out in a group text chat set up by Osman who put the info on Bengali FB messenger and the people from their community would respond,” said Meadors. “A total of 400 dinners were delivered all over the city, they didn’t let the storm stop them.”

“It was a joint effort, we felt that we had to help and the volunteers selflessly reached out to people across communities. We had requests from African Americans, Somalians, local White Americans, everyone,” said Alam.

“During the storm, we got a call from a family where a pregnant woman was in labor. Our volunteers immediately drove her to the local hospital during very stormy conditions,” he recalled.

The community that has a very close-knit network showed to the city how during a calamity they could channelize their resources to help each other.

Read: Bangladeshi community rescued, sheltered and fed hundreds affected by blizzard – and racked up driving ban fines (December 30, 2022)

Fazlul Karim who runs the Buffalo Bangla Facebook page used his network to reach maximum people. Talha Bakth who runs the Al Aqsa, a grocery store in the city, also helped volunteers to reach any one who needed any aid.

The volunteer team was always available if anyone needed shelter, food, medicines, snow shoveling or any other help.

“The doors of Love Birds restaurant are still open to anyone who needs food,” says Alam.