The idea didn’t strike Yahya Hashemi as particularly new or novel.
People get hungry and they need to eat whether they can afford a meal or not. That’s the philosophy behind a recent initiative by Hashemi and fellow business owner Ala Amiry to offer free meals to those in need at their Ste-Catherine St. market.
“We never thought there’d be any reaction,” said Hashemi. “To us, this is very normal. It’s a value we were raised with.”
Hashemi says the idea came to him about three months ago, after noticing that, almost every day, people came to his west-downtown store asking for spare change. He runs the Elite Forex currency exchange shop next to Amiry’s Marché Ferdous restaurant.
“They were hungry, I would give them a few dollars and tell them to go next door and tell (Amiry) I sent them,” Hashemi said. “One day, I thought why not just give them the food?”
Amiry’s restaurant is next to the former St. James the Apostle Anglican Church near Bishop St., an area that many itinerant and homeless Montrealers frequent. He says his daughter printed a sign advertising the free food arrangement in October.
Ala Amiry, left, and Yahya Hashemi, are trying to help feed some of the poor and hungry in their neighbour. Hashemi runs the Elite Forex and Amiry owns Marche Ferdous. The pair are seen at the restaurant in Montreal on Friday December 23, 2016.
The restaurant serves free meals to about four regulars a day but it also offers food to students without an income and anyone in need.
Ferdous specializes in chicken shawarma, roasted potatoes and a variety of Middle Eastern delicacies — the aroma of garlic and saffron wafted across the restaurant Friday.
“We don’t judge, we don’t ask questions, if you say you need it, we’ll give the food away,” said Amiry. “Some of them, they’re very shy, they feel embarrassed. They ask if it’s for real. We say, ‘Don’t worry, you can just take and go or stay or whatever.'”
As a boy, in Iraq, Amiry says his mother taught him to “pass on the blessings of God, to give thanks for our own good fortune.”
Amiry left his home in Baghdad after the Gulf War. He had a good job teaching English but says his family lived under a climate of fear during the dictatorship of former president Saddam Hussein.
“It’s a beautiful country but there was no freedom, people who spoke out would disappear in the night,” he said. “Then during the war — with the bombs falling over Baghdad — my family, my wife’s family was scared to death.”
Things only got worse for Amiry after the American-led invasion of Iraq. The United Nations imposed sanctions on Hussein’s regime and crippled the Iraqi economy.
“We had no choice we had to leave,” said Amiry. “Canada welcomed us, Canada has done so much for us, it’s only normal to give back.”
His mother, who imparted the values of community and generosity to Amiry, still lives in Baghdad. She’s since survived a second invasion of Iraq, years of sectarian violence and a civil war.
Amiry says that compared to his mom’s resolve, giving away food to the needy is small potatoes.
“She’s tough and a lot of Iraqis are tough, tough people,” he said. “This is a small gesture that we hope can make people in a difficult situation feel a bit better. Giving back was a value I was raised with but it’s also a Canadian value.”
