Food Assistance | Food Heritage Foundation

It is with more cooking and food assistance that the Food Heritage Foundation ends its year!

The cooks from Zahle CK with trainers Dr. Salwa Tohme Tawk and Ms. Marwa Soubra - Food Safety officer of FHF — *The cooks from Zahle CK with trainers Dr. Salwa Tohme Tawk and Ms. Marwa Soubra – Food Safety officer of FHF*

In collaboration with the International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC), FHF is currently working closely with ladies from 2 associations (Nusroto in Zahle & The Orthodox Orphanage in Tripoli) to establish two new community kitchens that will mainly provide food assistance to vulnerable Syrian refugee and Lebanese families.

Ms. Dominique Anid - Health & Nutrition Specialist of FHF, introducing the concept of community kitchen to the ladies of Zahle CK — *Ms. Dominique Anid – Health & Nutrition Specialist of FHF, introducing the concept of community kitchen to the ladies of Zahle CK*

The teams of ladies cooks in both areas (around 15 women) were trained by FHF members on the latest food safety standards, healthy nutrition, kitchen management and menu development.

It's pasta cooking day in Tripoli community kitchen! — *It’s pasta cooking day in Tripoli community kitchen!*

Accordingly, the 2 new kitchens will very soon be filled with smells of richta, hommous b burghur, wheat with laban and many more traditional healthy recipes that were chosen by the ladies themselves to feed around 250 families in Zahle and Tripoli.

*Ms. Marwa Soubra giving a training on food safety*

This program aims to improve the livelihoods of the ladies cooks leading the kitchens while alleviating food insecurity and enhancing dietary diversity of vulnerable refugee and local families. These kitchens could also be turned into small business enterprises at a later stage to sustain their activities and ensure revenues to the ladies’ teams.

*Brainstorming on the recipes to be included in the menu*

The Food Heritage Foundation, in affiliation to the Environment and Sustainable Development Unit at AUB, is supporting a community kitchen in Minyara, Akkar in partnership with the International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC). The project initiated in May 2013 and is ongoing.

The idea behind this project is to link emergency food assistance to the development of host communities. In fact, a pre-existing community kitchen in Minyara was upgraded and women were mobilized and trained to cater healthy traditional food pots to vulnerable refugee families.

Women cooks are both locals, from the host community of Minyara, and Syrians, from the surrounding refugee communities.

This project offers an income-generating activity to women, while helping to enhance social rehabilitation among host and refugee women. At the same time, the distribution of food pots helped alleviate food insecurity and increase dietary diversity among vulnerable refugee families. The project also contributes to boosting the local economy as raw ingredients are purchased on site.

In January 2014, this outreach has targeted 240 refugee families in Halba and Kousha – Akkar. These families are receiving food pots 3 times per week. Priority is given to families with pregnant / lactating women, elderly and children under 5 years of age.