I say, and with Allah's success: Its cornerstone is the ownership to the poor; as stated in his saying r: «Discharge on behalf of every free person and slave» in Sunan al-Daraqutni 2: 150, and the discharge is ownership, so it cannot be fulfilled with permissible food, nor with anything that is not ownership at all. The Islam of the recipient is not a condition for the validity of the discharge, so it is permissible to give it to the people of the covenant, and it is permissible to give what is obligatory in Zakat al-Fitr on behalf of one person to a group of poor people, and to give what is obligatory on behalf of a group to one poor person; because the obligation is a form of Zakat, thus it is permissible to collect it and distribute it: like the Zakat of wealth, and the imam does not send a collector for it; because the Prophet r did not send, and we have in him a good example. See: Bada'i al-Sanai 2: 74-75, and Allah knows best.