Holiday Desserts From Welcome Neighbor STL Support Refugees

This holiday season, pick up some packages of international desserts from Welcome Neighbor STL, an organization that helps immigrant and refugee families in St. Louis. The dessert packages are prepared by refugee chefs and proceeds go to benefit the chefs' families.

The packages each contain six Syrian baklava with pistachios and walnuts, six Moroccan coconut macaroons, and six Afghan semolina sugar cookies. The cookies were all prepared using traditional recipes from ServSafe certified chefs. Each packages is $50.

After ordering on Welcome Neighbor STL's website, you can pick up your dessert package at the Welcome Neighbor office (3672 Arsenal Street) between 12 and 2 p.m. on December 23 and 24.

One of the chefs is Mawda Altayan, who is Syrian. "My mom and my grandmother taught me how to make the best traditional Syrian cuisine," she said in a statement. "I wrote all of their recipes in a notebook and practiced them till I knew them by heart."

Zohra Zaimi, the Moroccan chef, is a self-taught baker who also loves cooking, while Freshta Zary, from Afghanistan, is a baker who recently arrived in the U.S. "We love St. Louis," she says. "The people here are so kind and helpful and have made us feel like we are truly at home."

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