Food for Thought at Flavours of Hope Cross-Cultural Feast

The vegan dinner aims to empower refugee women through the sharing of traditional food. 

Most of us probably can’t imagine what it’s like to transition to a new home in a new country, but Flavours of Hope is trying to make this process easier for refugee women who have recently come to Canada. The non-profit organization’s goal is to celebrate a diversity of cultures through a series of intimate community dinners. The dinners offer a space to build new relationships, learn about traditional cooking, and create dialogue about culture and food.  

“Flavours of Hope is really about honouring women’s resilience and stories,” says founder Trixie Ling, “and it’s amazing to see how cooking and feeding others brings joy to the women and empowers them to give back to the community that welcomed them.”

The upcoming cross-cultural dinner will take place at The Garden Strathcona on May 11, and will feature a long-table Persian and East African dinner prepared by a recent Iranian refugee as well as a Kenyan chef from Kula Foods (Kula meaning eat in Swahili). It will include items such as sautéed greens (Sukuma Wiki), Persian eggplant dip (Mirza Ghasemi), and East African Doughnuts (Mandazi). A portion of ticket sales will go towards empowering refugee women to cook their traditional foods. 

After all, nothing brings people together quite like sharing a good meal. 

Flavours of Hope vegan feast is happening Saturday, May 11, from 6:30-9:30 p.m. at The Garden Strathcona, 868 East Hastings Street. Dinner and non-alcoholic drink tickets are $65, and dinner with alcoholic drink pairings is $85. Find tickets here.

To have more on the city’s best events delivered right to your inbox, subscribe to the VMnewsletter!