Established by ESDU, The Food Heritage Foundation and its food tourism network (Darb el-Karam), have been featured in the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO) “Regional Report on Women in Tourism in the Middle East.”
Published in 2020, The report maps and examines the participation of women in the tourism sector throughout the region prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The five main areas of focus are: employment, entrepreneurship, education and training, leadership and community.
FHF and Darb el-Karam have been highlighted among several community and society-driven initiatives for empowering women and rural communities and supporting rural livelihoods by promoting tourism and food heritage.
Read the full report here (FHF is mentioned on page 72, ESDU & FHF Rural Tourism Coordinator Petra Chedid is mentioned in Annex 3):
August has been a very busy month for the FHF in providing capacity building training as part of the foundation’s women empowerment activities.
In collaboration with the Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA) and the National Federation of Lebanese Cooperatives, FHF team is delivering a series of training on Mouneh production to individual small-scale producers and cooperative members from the Bekaa and South.
Twenty-four ladies are participating in the sessions that are held in Al-Baraka Association’s in Ghobeiry with hands-on sessions in the association’s kitchen. Sessions on food safety, packaging and labeling, kitchen management, sun-drying and food presentation are delivered, among many other topics.
Training on sun-drying in WPA center, Nahr el-Bared
The Food Heritage Foundation (FHF) in collaboration with Mercy USA is providing a set of interactive workshops for Palestinian ladies in the Women Program Association (WPA) in Nahr El-Barid Camp. The workshop sessions cover different topics related to food service and provide practical information to guide the ladies on the food service chain from the purchasing of raw ingredients all the way to marketing of products. Some of the topics that are being covered during the training sessions are: food safety and hygiene practices, food purchasing, kitchen management, packaging and labeling etc.
Training on sun-drying in WPA center in Nahr el-Barid
Before starting the training sessions, a situational assessment of WPA kitchen was done by the FHF team in order to upgrade the kitchen to meet the food safety standards and to tailor the training workshops based on the needs.
The project which started in February 2018, aims to support the ladies by improving their access to the local market in order to ameliorate their socio-economic status. Women are encouraged to build up their own businesses in several fields such as mouneh making, pastries or sweets preparation.
The women participating in the workshops are enjoying the sessions and are being very enthusiastic about learning new information and techniques that will help them in starting their small businesses.
The Food Heritage Foundation, represented by Mrs. Dominique Anid Gerebtzoff co-founder and Health & Nutrition specialist, took part of FAO’s Symposium on Sustainable Food Systems for Healthy Diets and Improved Nutrition which took place in Rome during December 1-3, 2016.
Happy to be at FAO headquarter!!
The International Symposium that was held in FAO headquarters, Rome is a follow-up to the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2). The Symposium contributed to the continued dialogue, engagement and collaboration between country governments and stakeholders around the identification of innovative solutions that enable food systems to deliver healthy diets for improved nutrition.
Mrs. Gerebtzoff presented the foundation’s different initiatives with a focus on “Women empowerment for improved household access to healthy diets in Lebanon”. The panel”Empowering women as key drivers of food system change” was very rich with experiences from Lebanon (FHF), South Africa, Tadjikistan, Paraguay and Canada around sustainable diets, healthy diets and improved nutrition!
Dominique (first on the right) among the the ladies participating in the session
Another Lebanese participant was the Environment and Sustainable Development Unit (ESDU) represented by its director Dr. Shadi Hamadeh who had as well a strong representation all throughout the Symposium. ESDU’s vision and programs were also presented the Symposium through a presentation entitled “Response to the food security crisis in conflicts; embedding development into relief” as part of the session on enhancing food system resilience in areas affected by climate change and other crisis.
We are very happy and proud to have participated in this international symposium and to have shared our work with people from all around the globe.
Thank you FAO for this great opportunity!
The full coverage of the session is available on this link:
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
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
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!
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
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