About 900 Syrian refugees in Canada’s Atlantic province of New Brunswick will be getting free pita bread for the next two months, thanks to an entrepreneur who knows what they are going through.
“We lived it in Lebanon and we know how difficult that is, you know, the bombing and not knowing who’s going to be killed next and where the bomb is going to be thrown,” said Mike Timani, the owner of Fancy Pokket bakery in Moncton, who came to Canada in 1976, escaping the civil war in Lebanon.
(click here to listen to the interview with Mike Timani)
ListenTimani, who started as a busboy in a Toronto hotel and ended up running an empire that produces millions of pitas, bagels, flatbreads and tortilla wraps, says the challenges facing Syrian refugees who are now arriving in New Brunswick were once his reality, as he started a new life in a new country and worried about having enough to eat.
Timani said he still remembers his rocky start in Canada – with no official status, running out of money and having to take an $800 loan from a cousin, the only person he knew in Canada.
“By the time I had my work permit, I only had $50 in my pocket, so at that time you can imagine what I had to eat and to be careful,” he said. “I know what they will be going through.”
Timani is giving Syrian families arriving in Moncton, Saint John and Fredericton up until the end of March a two-month supply of his signature 12-inch pita bread, the preferred choice of the Syrian refugees who he says “live on pita.”
“In the Middle East we eat pita bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner. So when they see the other bread for them it’s not the same at all,” Timani said.
Last night he personally visited 25 Syrian families in Moncton, close to 175 people, to hand deliver them the pita breads and to get a chance to talk to them, Timani said.
“They were very pleased, they were very happy, they were ecstatic,” he said. “They felt comfortable.”
According to the federal government, 445 Syrian refugees have arrived in New Brunswick since Nov. 4.
The province expects to receive roughly 1,500 out of the 25,000 Syrian refugees that the federal government has committed to bringing to Canada.
Timani said his advice to them is to learn English and French.
“But the main thing here is that they have to continue to commit themselves that this is a new place for them, their children will be educated here, they’re going to make a new life here,” he said.
For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.