Syrian refugees grapple with dietary needs and high food prices
Syrian families grateful for all the support, but find it hard to navigate food issues
As Syrian refugee families settle into new lives in Nova Scotia, they are grappling with how to fulfil traditional dietary requirements while facing high Canadian food prices on limited budgets.
As a trained pharmacist, Marwan Al Ali knows the benefits of a balanced diet, particularly for his four children. But he now finds it a challenge to fill their lunchboxes with fresh food they are used to.
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Syrians typically eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, but those can be expensive at the grocery store and not easy to come across at the Halifax food bank where Al Ali heads twice a month.
"When we came we would put one kilogram of tomatoes in our salad for six persons," said Al Ali, who fled Syria with his family and eventually settled in Halifax. "But it is too expensive, so we now put two tomatoes instead."
Asking for food is not something he's used to and he says the family only takes from the food bank what "we absolutely need."
Reading labels
This is not the only difficulty Syrian refugees face. Muslim tradition dictates that only animals slaughtered by hand in a humane way and blessed can be eaten, a tradition known as halal, which is Arabic for permissible.
While there are stores that sell such meat in Halifax, it's expensive.
Another challenge at the grocery store and food bank is reading the ingredients with only limited English. Al Ali hopes to quickly learn to decode the labels, and also needs help to understand what kind of food is suitable for his family's health and religious needs.
"We are OK, but it is difficult for people who have diabetes and allergies and they really need clear translations and explanations," said Al Ali. "Better from an Arabic-speaking person, saying 'this has sugar, this is bad for your cholesterol.'"
60 per cent of clientele
Syrians now make up to 60 per cent of clients at some food banks. Dennis Peters, who volunteers at the Halifax West Ecumenical Food Bank, uses pictures to communicate.
"One of our volunteers devised this, got these pictures made up of a cow and a pig and a chicken and all that," Peters said. "We lay that on a table out front, just outside these doors. When they come in, they'll point to one of the animals and they'll say 'yes or no.'"
For Nick Jennery, executive director of Feed Nova Scotia, the big challenge right now is not even language or dietary requirements — but the need for more food donations.
"We are doing an outreach to farmers and all the regular donors that we do and we're hoping that things like the farmer tax credit that was announced in the budget will provide some additional incentive for fresh fruit and vegetable donations," Jennery said.
He has also put a call out to students at local universities for more Arabic-speaking volunteers.
Al Ali, like many other refugees, has just started learning English. He hopes the language barrier will soon disappear.
Although navigating around the dietary requirements is not easy, he said it is a minor difficulty compared to fleeing bombing in Aleppo and hitchhiking to Turkey for almost four days.
Al Ali's family is grateful for all the support.
"I want to tell, that the Canadian people and the Canadian government are already doing so much to make our settlement easier, very nice and kind people," he said.