The roughly two dozen refugee women baking goodies for the latest Syrian Sweets Sale have a new partner: The YWCA Southern Arizona.
It's the icing on the cake for a group of bakers and volunteers who have teamed up to satisfy Tucson's sweet tooth.
Many of the organizers of the bake sale are from the group Arizona Welcomes Refugees and didn't expect the first sale in December to be such a hit. But when the women ran out of treats that first day, they realized they were on to something.
Since then, the group has hosted three other bake sales, with a fourth planned for Sunday, Feb. 12. Each sale has drawn hundreds of Tucsonans, says Melanie Cooley, an organizer of the sales. We're talking as many as 500 or 600 people a sale.
"The initial one was intended to be a one-off, but it was a such a good fit that it was clear it needed to grow into something more," Cooley says. "But the volunteer crew can't do this in perpetuity, because it's not our business, so we have really focused over the past month or so on preparing and starting the pathway for the ladies toward independence."
Part of that includes a potential partnership with the YWCA, which will host the Sunday sale at 525 N. Bonita Ave.
"I think the focus of the Women's Business Center is supporting women immigrants to become entrepreneurs..." says Marisol Flores-Aguirre, the director of the Women's Business Center. "These women really capture and encompass all of that."
And while nothing is official yet, Flores-Aguirre and E. Liane Hernandez, the community outreach and education director, envision using the both the Women's Business Center and not-yet-open Kitchen Business Incubator to give these women the resources they need to operate viable bakery businesses, whether at farmers markets or with private customers. Some have dreams of owning food trucks or restaurants.
So far about 30 Syrian refugee women have earned a home baked and confectionery goods certification from the Arizona Department of Health Services, meaning they have completed a food handling safety program at the state level, Cooley says.
All of the women baking for Sunday are certified.
"We kind of expected when we said, 'Okay, you need to do this work to participate in the bake sale' that we would lose people, that we would have fewer people, because now you have to get serious, take a class and follow some rules, and that has not happened," Cooley says. "They are all in. For many of the them, this is the first professional certification they have ever gotten in their lives."
Reema Abu Zaed, 34, is one of the women now certified. She, along with her five kids and husband, has lived in the United States for 15 months. Abu Zaed has baked for all of the sales so far.
"She's looking for other opportunities right now, especially farmers markets," says Rania Kanawati, translating. Kanawati, an organizer of the bake sales, moved to the U.S. from Syria 24 years ago.
Back in Daraa, Syria, where Abu Zaed is from, she often baked for her family and friends. Here, it is a way to not only support her family financially (each woman takes home all of the money she makes), but to get to know Tucson.
The encouragement she has received has calmed the early nerves over the language barrier. Now, Abu Zaed has American friends, who visit despite the different languages.
Another woman told Cooley that planning for the bake sale gives her something to think about besides the situation in Syria and the political climate in the U.S.
"What the ladies have done is give Americans something else to know about Syria besides war, which is delicious food, smiling faces, warmth and a real connection to a people and culture, so that's really powerful," Cooley says. "They are well aware that they are ambassadors of their culture."
So much so that Phoenix has copied the bake sale model, hosting two soft launch sales Friday, Feb. 10 with an official sale planned for Sunday, Feb. 19 at Dayspring United Methodist Church, 1365 E. Elliot Road in Tempe. Learn more about that endeavor at syriansweetsaz.com.
Kanawati, who has helped Phoenix organizers navigate the launch, says that she has also been contacted by a community in California interested in emulating what Tucson has done.
"My dream is to go national and show support of these ladies..." she says. "This is a way of getting out of the house and getting involved in the community. To me, it's like cheering them up."
Sample the sweets
Find the Syrian Sweets Sale — The Love Edition at the YWCA Southern Arizona, 525 N. Bonita Ave., 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 12.
If you go, take small bills and maybe your own Tupperware container in case pastry boxes are in short supply.
To subscribe for more updates and information about some of the sweets, go here.
