Welland Tribune e-edition

Restaurant is feeding people who are not able to pay

Hijabeez Shawarma and Falafel House owner starts a pay-it-forward initiative

PAUL FORSYTH

There’s a sign on the front counter of the Hijabeez Shawarma and Falafel House in Niagara Falls reading “Be Kind” — and it’s not just window dressing.

Restaurant owner Alexandra Fournier and her staff embody that philosophy every day, helping individuals in need with a warm meal and a heaping dose of human kindness they may not see very often.

Fournier is using her eatery on Thorold Stone Road to do what she can to make sure vulnerable people, including single moms, the “working poor” and people experiencing homelessness, don’t go hungry.

Fournier said when she moved to Niagara Falls in 2008 she was “shocked” to see the homelessness problem that has become steadily worse in recent years. She’d routinely dip into her own pocketbook to buy people meals from McDonald’s or Tim Hortons, even driving them to dollar stores to pick up things they needed.

The restaurant recently started a new pay-it-forward initiative through which customers can prepay for meals and place tags on a wall board. People without money to pay for a meal can come in and cash in one of the tags to get something to eat. That’s an extension of something Fournier and her staff have been doing for some time.

“At the end of the night, any food that was left, I would drive around and find people in need — people on the street, then going to motels used as shelters,” said Fournier.

Many of the people living in those converted motels are seniors who are unable to cook for themselves, said Fournier.

“Since the pandemic hit, there’s a lot more people who lost their homes and there are whole families living in motels,” she said.

“On a daily basis, I have people reaching out to me saying, ‘I don’t have any money to feed my kids and I don’t get paid until the first of the month,’ ” Fournier said.

“That just makes my heart feel really heavy.”

On Saturdays, when the restaurant was closed, Fournier and her staff would come in and prepare 50 to 100 meals and drive around, handing them out to people in need. Fournier routinely gives out her personal cellphone number to people experiencing homelessness and invites them to come by the restaurant any time to eat even if they have no money to pay.

“People started hearing about it, so we would have customers come in and bring us money so we could make more meals,” she said.

In addition to people experiencing homelessness, Fournier said she sees children come in who are famished.

“We have kids under age 14 who come here and their parents don’t make any food for them,” she said. “They even ask me for jobs because they want to work for the food. They’re that desperate for food that they actually want a job, but I can’t hire them because they’re minors.”

Fournier said it isn’t just about putting food in empty bellies.

“It can make someone feel loved and appreciated,” she said. “A lot of people who are in those situations feel hopeless, especially when you have children.”

Fournier said no one coming in to ask to be fed with food they can’t pay for is ever judged.

“If someone walks in and they need food, there is absolutely no way we’ll turn them away.”

As a Muslim person, Fournier said her faith calls for giving charity. She said she’d love to see other city restaurants follow her lead and said she’s willing to help them to set up their own program.

The restaurant can be reached at hijabeez88@gmail.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/hijabeezrestaurant.

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Since the pandemic hit, there’s a lot more people who lost their homes and there are whole families living in motels.

ALEXANDRA FOURNIER OWNER OF HIJABEEZ SHAWARMA AND FALAFEL HOUSE

LOCAL

en-ca

2023-02-07T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-02-07T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://wellandtribune.pressreader.com/article/281560884949431

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