People from all over the world came together Tuesday to celebrate the holiday season in Calgary at a dinner helping new immigrants and refugees in the city.
The Centre for Newcomers hosted its second annual Holiday Season Pop-Up Potluck, with the proceeds from the ticketed event going toward programs the centre offers.
Centre staff prepared and served up dishes from every continent except Antarctica and Australia, showcasing culinary traditions brought from their homelands.
Most of the staff came to Canada as immigrants or refugees and their experiences help them to support other newcomers with settlement, language training and developing career skills.
Staff members say the potluck dinner provides a much-needed opportunity for people to come together during the holiday season.
“As a newcomer, they need to have a place they can call home. Because if they’re very new, they feel isolated and during this time of the year, we have to get together with the community,” Helen Negre said.
“It is very important for them to have inclusivity in the community.”
“It’s very important, because the main values of the centre is to work on diversity and then integration for the newcomers, and also to deliver that message to Calgarians in general,” Mohamad Awada said. “So it’s nice out to have that cross point for Calgarians and the newcomers to share the dishes.”
For many staff members, the dinner is a time to reflect on their own experiences when they first arrived in Calgary.