[URBAN NOTE] "Syrian refugees find comfort at Toronto's Depanneur"

[rfmcdonald]

NOW Toronto's Mary Luz Mejia writes about how one west-end Toronto restaurant opened up its kitchen to Syrian refugees.

Sanaa Alhamad beams at the bounty before her. Parsley, mint, lemons, garlic, tahini paste in tall jars – this is the food she knows and loves. The mother of four from Aleppo arrived in Canada in January with the United Nations’ help.

She busies herself finely chopping the parsley for a huge batch of fresh citrusy tabouleh, the salad accompaniing the baharat-spice-infused kibbeh, or ground beef fritters, and hummus being prepared.

“Cooking here today, it makes me happy. It makes me feel useful,” she says, smiling.

Alhamad is one of 10 women attending the latest session of Len Senater’s Newcomer Kitchen program. For many here today it’s the first time they’ve been on a subway, an escalator or inside a Canadian grocery store. The women, who shopped for ingredients to prepare a luncheon feast at Senater’s west-end food haunt, the Depanneur, are all newly landed Syrian refugees.

Most of them have been living in hotels for at least a month, an arrangement that got Senater thinking. “One of the worst things about long-term hotel stays is you don’t usually get to eat properly because there’s nowhere to cook. I wondered, what are they eating? Are they going to the gas station and buying Doritos?”

The Depanneur’s working kitchen isn’t used during the day. “Let them come and cook!” became Senater’s goal.