Syrian family gives back by helping Ottawa Food Bank

Every year at this time, the Ottawa Mennonite Church holds a fair trade Christmas market, with proceeds going to the Ottawa Food Bank. Volunteers make it all happen.

• Project Give 2017 in support of the Ottawa Food Bank

This year, one group of volunteers has a special reason for wanting to give back.

They're members of a Syrianfamily who arrived in Canada as refugees over the last three years, and they wanted to say thank you to the congregation that sponsored them to come here, and has supported them since.

"When we came to Canada, the sponsors at the Ottawa Mennonite Church did a lot to help and sponsor and guide us," Lodi Ghossen said in an interview with CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning for Project Give.

"When I first came to Canada[I had] a lot of stress because I changed my city, my country. But now I feel very comfortable, especially when I came to this church."

High tea, borscht

One event leading up to the annual market is a high tea, with borscht and Mennonite desserts served by volunteers. A new addition this year was a Syrian dinnerwith hummus, tabbouleh, pita,and spinach and cheese piesprepared by the newcomers for nearly300 guests.

Elias Ghusin, who is Lodi's brother but spells hislast name differently,said the Syrian dinner was the church's idea, but thathe and his family were happy to makethe event happen.

Maria Rigby has been volunteering with the Ottawa Mennonite Church for years and said the refugees even those who've only been in Canada a few weekswere eager to help out in any way they could. Some volunteered at the high tea last year and really embracedthe spirit of the event despite speaking very little English, Rigby said.

"One of the women, she was very shy last year, so shy she could hardly speak. We didn't know how good her English was. She went basically from a level two to a level six in English, which is an amazing leap."

"This year she's going to be one of our servers and go around and offer people tea and take the orders," Rigby added. "She and her husband were the ones who spearheaded the Syrian dinner."

LodiGhusinsaid the dinner was a success, and thathelping out madethe volunteers happy as well as helping the food bank.