BEIRUT — Soubhiye Zeiter has expanded a tented bakery stand in a displacement settlement in Beirut to produce between 3,000 and 3,500 mana'eesh each day for families uprooted by the war between Israel and Hezbollah. The settlement, which sits between the Mediterranean Sea and Beirut's high-end downtown district, houses people displaced by a conflict that has forced more than one million people from their homes in Lebanon.
Zeiter fled her home in Beirut's southern suburbs at the start of the war with fifteen members of her family. She began baking mana'eesh on her own saj, a traditional round metal griddle, initially producing around two hundred a day and handing them out for free.
Donors later provided a larger gas-powered oven that runs from early morning until late at night. Volunteers roll dough through a sheeter and package the bread as it leaves the oven. Dozens of people line up at the stand by early morning. "We bake 3,000 to 3,500 mana'eesh daily and people still come and ask for more," Zeiter said.
What began as one woman cooking for displaced children has grown into a community effort supported almost entirely through donations. The Beirut governor visited the stand and had coffee with Zeiter while touring the camp.
"People started donating gas, some donated flour or za'atar, some brought oil, cheese, sometimes people brought meat, some brought yeast," Zeiter said. "Whatever I need for this bakery, people are helping me out."
The sounds of drones and news of ongoing Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon reach the settlement during the workday. Zeiter spends time between baking shifts with her grandchildren and her small white dog, Bella.
Each morning she starts with a large cup of coffee at a small table decorated with flowers outside her tent and brews an extra pot to invite anyone passing by to sit for a few minutes. "What I love the most, in order to bring back memories, is to have flowers on the table or next to me when I drink coffee," Zeiter said.
"We're all displaced," she added. "If I lost my home or got displaced that doesn't mean that I have to lose my morale. Displacement shouldn't change us."