Montrealers show off their sweet tooth to lend hand to displaced Lebanese people

Montrealer Mayssam Samaha has been following the news of her people being displaced and killed by Israeli forces in Lebanon these past few months, overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness. 

Amid its fighting with Hezbollah militants, Israel has displaced more than 1.2 million Lebanese and killed more than 3,960 Lebanese — many of them civilians. 

Adults and children have been sleeping outdoors, while others carry their belongings in garbage bags or suitcases, moving from place to place. And since late November, a shaky ceasefire agreement has been in place, with Hezbollah and Israel accusing each other of violating it.

Watching the crisis unfold from afar, Samaha, a food and travel writer, decided to tap into her passion to give back to her home country.

"My parents, my family still live in Lebanon, so I was feeling very guilty about being safe and having a roof over my head, and food on my plate," said Samaha. "I needed to channel all that emotion into something specific." 

'Out of the goodness of their heart'

She reached out to some of the city's food enthusiasts, and the response was overwhelmingly positive. They rolled up their sleeves and got straight to baking. 

On Sunday, people were invited to donate money to Arcenciel, a non-profit in Lebanon. In exchange for their donations, they grabbed a box and filled them up with desserts of their choice.

The funds raised will go toward providing food and clothing for displaced people in Lebanon, as well as supporting individuals with disabilities.

"All 20 bakers, spread throughout the city, [were] baking for a country that most of them will never visit, but doing it out of the goodness of their heart, donating their time," said Samaha. "It was very emotional." 

Although the event brought together many Montrealers with Lebanese roots, contributors with no ties to the Middle Eastern country also chipped in.

Montreal baker Patrice Demers and co-owner of Sabayon, a local restaurant, is cognizant of the wars raging in the region, but felt he had yet to do anything about it, however small.

"For the last few months, we felt pretty useless seeing everything happening in the world," said Demers. "When Mayssam called us, it made so much sense to be able to come here today and bring a few cakes with us to make people happy and then to help raise some money." 

Ève Martel, a woman who's known Samaha since their early days of food blogging in 2008, also participated.

"It's always been important to me to help my friends. But this was more than helping your friends," said Martel. "I would've been here even if it wasn't for Mayssam because I think it's a good cause."

The fundraiser is still ongoing, and so far, organizers have reached their goal of raising $5,000 US.

"Everyone's here supporting Lebanon, which speaks so much about the cause and how important it is to be there for a country who's not in good shape right now," said Dima Adra, a fellow member of Montreal's food community and author of the Lebanese cookbook, Mama Ghanoush.

"It's so beautiful to see that the food community is coming together for our country in that way."