A Greener Ramadan: How Atlanta-Area Mosques Are Cutting Food Waste During the Muslim Holy Month

This story was originally published by 285 South, a newsroom dedicated to Metro Atlanta’s growing immigrant and refugee communities, and shared by Grist.

One evening in early March, Nina Ansari frowns as she picks up an untouched plate of rice left on the floor of the masjid she attends near her home in Stone Mountain. “Would anyone like to take this?” she asks a group of women standing nearby. When no one responds, she picks it up. Her hands are already full of the pizza and curry leftovers that her kids didn’t finish. If she doesn’t take the rice home, it will be thrown out. “There’s a lot of waste that happens during Ramadan,” says Nina, 38, who grew up in Georgia.