Hummustown, a Syrian food delivery enterprise, has turned a group of refugees into the protagonists of gastronomic excellence in Rome. The Syrian food delivery business saw the light in the Furio Camillo district of the Italian capital thanks to a fundraiser launched in 2019.

It grew over time to include a kiosk in the central Piazza della Repubblica near the Termini train station, a bistrot in Viale Aventino, near the UN agency Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), and soon a restaurant in the Ostiense neighborhood that is one of the epicenters of Rome's nightlife.

Fadi Salem, the manager of Hummustown, spoke to ANSA about this success story.

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Delivery service helps growth through the pandemic

"Everything began in 2017 in the home of Shaza Saker, who was born in Damascus to Syrian parents but had lived in Rome nearly all her life and who works for FAO," said Salem. "She had hired a Syrian refugee who had fled the war, Jumana, to help her at home and thought with her about the idea of preparing in Sahaza's home dinners to raise funds to help ease the suffering of those who had remained in Syria."

Word of mouth and rave reviews made the initiative so successful that Saker's kitchen became too small and a fundraiser in 2019, which garnered 40,000 euros, allowed organizers to open a delivery service in Furio Camillo.

"We also offer a catering service for birthdays, weddings and parties in general," said the manager of Hummustown, adding that refugees who arrived in Italy thanks to humanitarian corridors are involved in preparing the dishes.

Thanks to humanitarian corridors, Salem reached Italy after leaving Syria in 2013 and living in Lebanon for seven years. He arrived in Rome in March 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Indeed Covid, which led to the shutdown of many restaurants, allowed the delivery business to thrive with so many people forced to stay at home due to the virus.

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Helping people through hard times

"During the pandemic, an Italian chef also worked with us --she prepared fresh pasta before going back to work for the restaurants that had re-opened last year-- as well as an Italian man who had been forced to close [his business] due to the pandemic. If we can help people going through hard times, we do it with pleasure," commented Salem, who is a graphic artist and is currently in charge of communications for Hummustown, including on social media.

The kiosk in Piazza della Repubblica opened in 2022, the bistrot was inaugurated last month in Viale Aventino and the restaurant in the Ostiense district is scheduled to open by the end of the summer.

Hummustown's dishes aren't only prepared by Syrians but also by people from the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Iraq. Most of them are young people of different cultural backgrounds who, thanks to this initiative, have found employment in their host country in spite of the difficulties they face in relation to their status as refugees.

"90 percent of the Syrian population is educated but there are no jobs on offer in Italy, I also tried to find one related to my background but was unsuccessful," stressed Salem.

Speaking about the attitude people have towards him, Salem said he "can't generalize, it depends on individuals. Some are very open, others less so. The search for a home, for example, made me see various differences. I found those who did not want to rent their apartment even through I had an open-ended contract. I looked for a home for about a year until I met a woman who didn't even ask me for a paycheck, she trusted me immediately, not giving importance to the fact that I was a foreigner," recalled Salem, speaking about the "beautiful atmosphere" among those working for Hummustown.

"We are a family now", he said --a family come from afar and making progress in Italy by sharing the flavors of a homeland they were forced to leave.

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