Huzaifah Baharuddin, who has over 55,000 subscribers on YouTube, started the initiative a few days before the fasting month after a group of students aged 10 to 12 complained to him over the lack of halal food available.

They told him they could no longer stand just having nachos and peanut butter sandwiches as their daily meals in school.

“The cafeteria only serves non-halal meats like pork, and I’m not sure about the chicken (if it meets halal standards),” said Huzaifah, who works as a support staff at the school.

After discussing the matter with his wife, Samantha Brown Baharuddin, who hails from Omaha, they decided to make use of their YouTube revenue to purchase halal meals for the Muslim children, who come from various nations.

“I’m thankful we can use that revenue to help these students to some extent,” the 31-year-old Taiping native told FMT.

Known online as “Jai and Sam”, Huzaifah and Samantha also have over 237,000 followers on TikTok. Their videos involve their daily activities in the US, including cooking traditional Malay food.

Huzaifah moved to Omaha two years ago to marry Samantha, becoming one of the few Malaysians who were allowed to exit the country to get married at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, he often misses his hometown, especially when Ramadan and Hari Raya Aidilfitri come around.

“I was never excited about Ramadan bazaars in the past, but now I’m quite envious (of Malaysians back home) because they get to go bazaars and almost everyone there is fasting. The vibe is different,” he said.

“With that said, in some bigger cities (in the US) like Texas, they do have ‘buka puasa’ events because there are a lot of Muslims there.”

To nurse his homesickness, Huzaifah said he would often visit Dearborn, a city in the state of Michigan, where the majority of residents are Muslims.

“Almost all the workers in the supermarkets in Dearborn are Muslim,” he added.