Ms Abdul Aziz sought asylum in the United States in 2014, leaving her five children – including Sohil, her youngest, who was 12 – in Afghanistan. In early March, Sohil was allowed entry through a US citizenship and immigration services program that reunites refugee and asylum-seeking families. After eight years apart, mother and son embraced in a long embrace at the Missoula Montana airport. United We Eat shared the news in a subsequent newsletter, an effort to get to know customers better with Ms Abdul Aziz and her family.
Most customers recognize familiar chef faces and look forward to specific cuisines. Their only complaint: the dishes sell out too quickly.
Jim Streeter, 72, a retired accounting and finance professional in Missoula, waits on his home computer for Thursday morning emails. One week in February, even that didn’t work out. Mr. Streeter came downstairs to deliver the menu for the coming week to his wife, Sara, but by the time he returned to the computer it was full.
Guests say the meals offer a culinary diversity they can’t find elsewhere. The Census Bureau estimated Missoula County’s population to be 91.7 percent white in 2021. Without the United We Eat program, Missoul residents would have no place to order Congolese, Pakistani, or Guinean food.
Tri Pham, 49, a high school counselor who has ordered from United We Eat almost weekly since last fall, says his wife and daughters look forward to the variety. Slips of paper included with every order explain the dishes, their ingredients and the chef’s background. The biography included with Ms. AlMasri’s meal mentioned her arrival in Missoula during a record-breaking cold snap and described how eggplants for baba ghanouj are usually roasted over an open flame for a lightly smoky flavor.
“We like to expose our daughters to it so they get a broader view of the world,” Mr. Pham said, “that it’s not just about burgers and fries.”
–
