ERSlab Food & Wine with Hummus Town (Shaza e Loma Saker) – May 18, 2020
Last May 18, the ERShub office, thanks to the project manager Simone Budini, has carried out the ERSlab dedicated to students of Master in Food & Wine Management, allowing students to get to know a unique entity: Hummustown. This association was born in 2017 with such a noble goal: to establish a kitchen lab made of Syrian refugees as cooks and waiters, people strongly needing the chance to work and be socially redeemed, leaving behind them the horrors of civil conflict and consequent losses, researching a concrete possibility to start again. The idea was born from a person owning Syria in her blood: Shaza Saker. She moved to Italy in the Eighties together with her family, and currently works as Programme Officer at FAO, who could not bear to feel unmighty in front of the tragedy her country-fellows were living, people landing on Italy’s ground dreaming a better life, a decent work, and above all, safety.
And neither charity nor welfare can change a life, but simply the chance to live normally, earning the necessary to live thanks to one’s own job. In Hummustown story it appears the slogan: Refugees Want Parity, Not Charity.
Hummustown offers especially takeaway food, but it also cooks for caterings and parties, preparing typical Syrian dishes with love and commitment. Typical food is cooked by those who know it very well: genuine Syrian people, grown up among such dishes, with those recipes well rooted in their culture. The multiple aim ranges from the toppling of cultural barriers to honest employment of people who otherwise would meet difficulties due to such barriers. A virtuous business because ethically based (more info at: www.hummustown.com).
Shaza Saker commented her participation to Lab in this way: “…on behalf of Hummustown I vividly thank you for having chosen our project as the main topic. I am enthusiast about all four presentations! Each group has introduced not only original ideas focused on how to make the project grow, but firstly they have been able to maintain a focus on project’s real identity – this is business, but not just like any other: this a hearth-beating business for the underserved. It has been a real discovery for me to know a non – typical generation of millennials…thanks to everybody for this experience!”.
Students’ comments demonstrated to have shared the same happiness to have joined this lab and to have known such an innovative reality, so different from many experiences belonging to food business.
Some commented “…a true opportunity for a cultural exchange and ideas”, or again “…it highlights fairly unknown topics!” complaining that it’s a pity not to have live tasted this food. Unfortunately, the situation has not been allowed due to Coronavirus lockdown. An anonymous student declared that “…regarding to laboratory (…) I have enjoyed it a lot: notwithstanding it has been digitally run, the values have strongly and decisively stood out” and affirmed to having been moved by the tragic war experience told by a guy working at Hummustown. He also carries on “…this lab allowed us to open up this mind recalling a sense of solidarity that never, like those particular days, seems to be lost: it revealed the difference between who we are and who we want to be”.
The positive side has been that students got in touch with an entity they would not easily forget. Another seed of good has been planted: who is going to allow it to grow up?
