The Big Shop at IRIS

 

When I was a child, my mother told me that food is love. I grew up appreciating food—and meals shared with family and friends—as something that offers safety, comfort, and peace. For refugees—displaced people, many of whom are war victims—eating good, fresh food in peace means...a lot.

 

Mustafa and his wife--parents of three young children--lived for two years in a refugee camp on the Iraq border. During the Iraq War, Mustafa suffered a severe shoulder injury. When he arrived in the U.S., his case managers at IRIS helped him access good medical care at Yale-New Haven Hospital. But the doctors told him there was nothing they could do to repair his fractured shoulder, which still causes him pain and discomfort.

 

War tears apart families. It changes people’s lives forever. Many refugees—persecuted people from around the world—are victims of war.  In the chaos of fleeing from the war in Iraq, Maryam was separated from her husband.  With her three grown children, she made it to safety in New Haven, thanks to the U.S. refugee resettlement program.  Maryam (we’ve changed her name to protect her privacy) and her family are now clients of IRIS—Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services, New Haven’s refugee resettlement agency.

“The number has increased tremendously,” says Shamshad, a volunteer at the IRIS Food Pantry since the fall of 2008. “You see a lot of new faces and new families coming in. We are serving a huge community out there now. Friends are telling friends. Every week you meet new people.”