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1st Tawlet weekly menu and souk news
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Souk El Tayeb – Saturday’s Farmers’ Market
Beirut Souks Platform
Facing Medgulf Building
Downtown, Beirut
+961 1 442664
Tawlet and Souk El Tayeb Offices
Mar Mikhael, Nahr Beirut, sector 79
Naher street, n˚ 12 (Jisr el hadid)
Chalhoub building, n˚ 22 - Ground floor
facing Spoiler Center, dead end street at the corner of Maher flower shop
left side, corner bldg.
Tawlet +961 1 448129 Souk El Tayeb Offices: +961 1 442664
The Organisation
1- The Story
The land, its people, history, food and traditions underpin the very existence of Souk el Tayeb. Souk el Tayeb evolved since 2004 from an experimental farmers’ market promoting small scale farmers and producers, to an organization working on many projects nationally and internationally to promote and preserve Lebanese food and culinary traditions, rural heritage and natural environment.
EL TAYEB: Tayeb means “good” in Arabic and holds several meanings… Tayeb as “tasty”, Tayeb meaning “goodhearted” when talking about a person, Tayeb as being “alive” and Tayeb as a sign of “consent”.
We tried to group all of these positive meaning into one institution, hoping that we are doing “good”.
Souk El Tayeb’s Vision is to celebrate food and tradition that unite communities and support small-scale farmers and producers and the culture of sustainable agriculture.
Souk El Tayeb’s Mission is to create a “platform” around a common ground that brings together people of different regions and beliefs – celebrating the land we love, support small-scale farmers and producers, encourage organic, eco-friendly practices, contribute to local community development initiatives and carrying out advocacy, research, and educational campaigns about food traditions & heritage, organic and healthy lifestyle.
2- Doing well and doing good
Souk el tayeb is an experience of doing “well” and doing “good”.
“Entrepreneurship” and “social” rarely met until we heard about a new specie called, “social entrepreneurs”.
Entrepreneurs normally belong to the “business” world, and that usually means “income generation” and “profitability” … the doing “well” side of life! … Which from time to time also “buys a conscience” with some Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.
The world of NGOs, charities and welfare associations, takes in social and environmental involvement … but rarely has a clue about income generation or economic sustainability, and is usually “fueled” by funds and donations. This is a world interested in doing “good”.
Today, there is a new notion of social entrepreneurs that is about combining the best of both worlds … the world of environmental and social responsibility, and the business world’s income generation, management and organizational skills. In other words doing “well” and “good”.
Our modest adventure known as Souk el Tayeb (SET), somehow illustrates this case.
SET, by connecting consumers and producers who both value traditional, high quality, natural products, was able to get the farmers a fair price for their goods, while gaining them recognition and a better income. Thus doing “well” and “good” while providing a way to perpetuate and preserve centuries old food traditions for future generations to enjoy.
This “platform” grew organically, into a meeting place bringing together people from different regions and beliefs with a shared goal – celebrating the land we love.
The shared goal was also about introducing environmentally-friendly practices, encouraging organic, eco-friendly produce to improve the quality of food, life and health, and contributing to local community development initiatives. These include teaching environmental awareness to future generations (through educational campaigns, Souk @ school and Souk @ university), consciousness-raising and promoting the experience of green living (through public awareness campaigns , El Tayeb Press and El Tayeb Newsletter), and promoting regional and local traditions and food specialties, through Food & Feast festivals.
The latest enterprise and development for Souk el Tayeb, is Tawlet, the farmers’ kitchen, a restaurant where each day a different cook (from Souk el Tayeb family) prepares and showcases traditional meals from their region. Dishes such as – zenkol, samke harra, kebbeh bassalyieh, maftouleh, reshta … each day, a different cook, a different producer, a different meal, a different story, a different eating experience that together unites a nation!
More than a mere farmers’ market, Souk el Tayeb, through its various projects, became the place to share life experiences and to raise awareness about healthy living, through education and information. A hub to combine both the “well” and the “good”.
The initial spark was about doing “good”, about human development and support for admirable rural farmers producing high quality, traditional products. Doing “well” followed closely after, providing the producers with a “platform” (a farmers market in the city, a festival in their village, a farmers’ kitchen in the city, along with the means to communicate and promote their products), where there is a demand and purchasing power for their products; this was not just about giving recognition and “pat on the shoulder” for the producers, but also about providing income generation and an economic platform!
In today’s world, this was redefining sustainability and profitability.
Sustainability is about “conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources”. Why shouldn’t this also be about economic sustainability, providing sound and responsible income generating activities too?
And profitability is about “yielding profit or financial gain”. So is it just about figures? Or should we redefine profitability as social and environmental responsibility alongside improving income, exposure and working conditions?
Ghandi once said: “Be the change you want to see.” Change often needs a “spark”, an initiator, and then must move from an individual’s responsibility, to community, societal or national interest. That is what we tried to achieve and continue to fight for with Souk el Tayeb.
3- The team
Kamal Mouzawak, Founder
As a son of farmers and producers, food and agriculture have always been Kamal's passion. From a food and travel writer to a macrobiotic cooking teacher, to hosting a TV show about healthy living, Kamal created Souk el Tayeb in 2004 and actively developed and built the institution. Kamal is in charge of the strategic development of the institution as well as its promotion.
Christine Codsi, Managing Partner
Following 10 years in business consultancy, Christine, dedicates now her time and life to actively manage and develope the Souk el Tayeb organization, bringing in her business background and experience and applying it to a social enterprise.
Jihane Chahla, Quality Assurance
Agriculture engineer graduate, Jihane created the quality control system of Souk el tayeb institution; she is now in charge of implementing quality control and following up on application of rules and regulations of the farmers market and in charge of new comers’ admission. Since Tawlet opened, Jihane developed its quality manual and helped achieve the "know your meal certification".
Mira Makhlouta, Souk Manager
From her environmental sciences background Mira manages the farmers' market and handles the relationship with all Souk el Tayeb farmers and producers. Taking care of delivering the farmers' market every week, Mira also organizes food and feast events - the Lebanon’s food festivals. Aside from all that, Mira also handles all the Social Media and communication for Souk el Tayeb.
Rana Zein, Accounting
Although Rana has a background in Biochemistry, she is in charge of all the accounts of the organisation, keeping a sound accounting system and finances. Along the way she earned a “General Accounting Certificate”.
Naji Boustany, Project Developer
Naji who holds a Bachelor in Hospitality, Bachelor in Bussiness management and MBA in supply chain and operations management has joined Tawlet in 2011 as a manager for almost a year. Naji is now responsible for the development of catering and on developing Tawlet Ammiq.
Nicolas Mansour, Tawlet Manager
Nicolas who has Bachelor in Arts for Business Management and a long time experience in F&B business now manages Tawlet.
Charbel Fares, Tawlet Chef
His background in Hotel Management and his 12 years of experience as a chef specialized in Lebenese cuisine, Charbel has been the chef for Tawlet since 2010.
Fadi Ayoub, Tawlet Sous Chef
Fadi joined Souk El Tayeb first as a valet parking in 2009. After working hard and proving himself he has become the Tawlet Sous Chef.
Sami Moussallem
One of the first members of Tawlet family Sami has a background in Hotel Management and is responsible of the bar and sweets buffet.
Elie Ibrahim
Elie has a degree in Hotel Management and has been with Tawlet since 2009 where he is responsible for the service and welcoming.
3- Capacity Building
The Capacity Building program aims at building, reinforcing and improving farmers, producers and cooks’ skills in both their technical and non technical aspects. The technical aspect, through provision of support in production, mainly agriculture and food processing techniques and the non technical or business aspect), through assistance and guidance on sales and marketing techniques, admin & accounting, as well as visual identity & promotion.
It includes:
- One to one consultancy
One to One Consultancy is finding a solution to a problem identified from souk or Field inspections. It can be done also further to the producer or farmer’s request, who wants to empower his knowledge about a given topic. Consultancy occurs in the farmer or producer’s premises, by specific experts previously defined further to the problem or need assessed.
- Trainings and Workshops
Trainings and workshops are organized normally at Tawlet (accessible place by all SET family), following a joint defined need or problem at a group of farmers and producers’ levels. QA manager identifies adequate experts / specialists, and collaborates with them on the organization of the training sessions in the finest way to benefit as much as possible small-scale farmers and producers. In order to avoid overlapping and repetition of same trainings’ topics (the fact that happen presently in Lebanon) and to enhance the partnership spirit, Souk El Tayeb’s invites other partners (NGOs, Foundations, Cooperatives…) to attend and take profit from these sessions too.
4- Learning
- Souk at School
We need text (old website, already told badeeh)
- El Tayeb newsletter
We need text (they are in a folder that I gave badeeh)
5- Publications and case studies
We need Content (they are in a folder that I gave badeeh)
6- Projects in Progress
- Ecosouk:
As a natural evolution of Souk el Tayeb, Eco-Souk will become the permanent space for the Famers’ Market.
Eco-Souk is a green space that serves as a market, a meeting place, a community garden, a kids eco-playground, a communal kitchen, a co-op shop and a mini sorting and recycling plant…using green architectural practices, built from re-used and locally recycled materials and powered by clean, alternative energy.
This innovative concept brings Lebanese communities together in an eco-friendly green space, that Beirut desperately lacks. The eco-market will become a microcosm of Lebanon where communities join in celebration of Lebanese rural and culinary traditions. It will represent every aspect of best environmental practices against a backdrop of fair trade economic activity and improved social integration.
- The Eco-Souk in brief:
- a farmers’ market generating income for a growing number of rural producers from all over Lebanon
- an organic and natural food restaurant stocked by the farmers’ produce and cooked by the producers
- a co-op shop to sell homemade, natural and organic produce
- a green play area for kids, a vegetable garden, and a tree nursery.
- a zero waste structure built from recycled, reused materials, providing the space and facilities to accommodate a large number of farmers, producers and visitors
- A sorting and recycling unit for waste and water.
Some facts about the Project
- 3,000sqm including barn, co-op shop, producers’ kitchen, recycling waste & water plant, kids playground
- Materials – recycled, reused, locally produced recycled glass and plastic panels
- Zero waste, onsite waste recycling, solar energy etc
- Allows the development of more activities to cater to people more than just one day a week therefore….
- Bringing more income generating activities for the producers: more days to sell, more outlets to sell, etc.
- Provides a flexible dynamic space that can evolve over time to and according to needs
- A living earth – platform for environmental awareness.
- Language Work Exchange Program (LWEP)
The objective of this program is allow foreign students (students) to work for Souk el Tayeb’s farmers and producers (hosts) for two weeks, in exchange for regular conversation in Arabic to improve the students Arabic language skills. The Souk El Tayeb Language-Work Exchange Program offers to provide language learning opportunities for the growing number of foreign students in Lebanon, assistance to small scale Lebanese food producers, promotion of Lebanon’s food, language and culture, as well as help for the improvement of the farmers and producers work, sales and skills.
- CHT:
Beit Loubnan/Communal Homes of Tradition (CHT). A new approach…back to rural areas. Following solid experience gained through introducing traditional food and production methods through weekly Farmers Markets in Lebanese cities, and in Food and Feast events all over the country, Souk el Tayeb has partnered with the International Labour Organization (ILO) to develop Beit Loubnan/Communal Homes of Tradition (CHT). These CHT “Homes” will be located in Lebanese villages as centres featuring traditional architecture, arts and crafts, sustainable agriculture, indigenous food and Lebanon’s legendary hospitality. Back to rural, going back home. …Just as farmers and producers come from rural to urban for our weekly farmers markets ….so city dwellers will go from urban to rural to visit Beit Loubnan.
Beit Loubnan/Communal Homes of Tradition (CHT).
The Mission: To keep the farmer/producer in his own environment while creating a meeting place for producers, artisans and consumers to contribute towards reviving and perpetuating local traditions.
The goal is to prevent traditions and crafts from dying out by creating job opportunities in the rural communities through a wide range of services, offering traditional food, arts and crafts, the best Lebanese ingredients and skills in an authentic setting.