It is great to be a part of solutions, and even more so when those solutions are selfless, amazing people who dedicate their lives to helping others with little or no reward.
In October 2020 we had a request from Janane in Lebanon to send one of our dehydrators for a community kitchen that is used for a non-profit organisation, helping locals preserve food during times of hardship. The organisation provides critical aid, education, vocational training, and psychosocial services support. We would like to share a link if anyone would like to make a donation to the organisation or to get in touch with them to see more of what they're doing. Click Here to make a donation.
"Our Lebanese oranges went through different experimental stages but now every batch is turning out extremely good, Our lemons too."
The idea to start a dehydration business started when we were looking on ways to preserve food for the times of hardship that is hitting Lebanon.
As Triumphant Mercy leader, I always try to think ahead and understand the situations that is coming up next I thought of all the road blocks and burning tires due to the many protests that are happening in the county. These road blocks could potentially cut the supply chain of fruits and vegetables from the agricultural areas of Lebanon to the city, and I started to think of ways to store up food and preserve it with no freezer ( after all even electricity is not reliable in Lebanon and there are multiple power cuts daily which could result in ruined stored items.)
On the other hand, Lebanon is also going through a huge economic crises and the unemployment rate is soaring high. A big number of People have lost jobs due to the economic crash.
As an NGO , we are always trying to find ways to be a blessing to people and create opportunities so that people can have a decent living and restored dignity instead of having to ask for continuous help. So we believed that the idea of having a dehydrator and producing our own dehydrated items could not only help us produce food that will last but will also open up the possibility of employing few people especially widows or students on part time basis. Selling the dehydrated items would generate income that would provide for those workers.
Since we received the dehydrator from the guy's at Commercial Dehydrators we have been experimenting a lot. We have equipped a small kitchen with all stainless steel material, have done some remodeling to the facility and started experimenting on different kinds of fruits and vegetables.
From the slicer width to the vegetable size to the temperature on the dehydrator, every fruit started to have it’s own chart : How thick they need to be, how crunchy , how leathery etc… and I can proudly say that we have mastered the dehydration of few items. Our Lebanese oranges went through different experimental stages but now every batch is turning out extremely good, Our lemons too.
We tried dehydrating garlic and those are a big hit and a must have in every kitchen.
Our next try out will be on peaches apples and bananas. September is the banana and apple season and we will be focusing on apples.
We are presently working on branding our products and will soon have them available for people to buy Lebanese fruits on our online store.
We are proud to be apart of the their story and will like to give you the opportunity to make any donation towards the organisation directly to https://tm-lebanon.com/
