In a war-torn region where millions are displaced and hungry, a new mobile bakery in Syria is supplying freshly baked bread to tens of thousands every day.
The bakery is a collaborative effort between the Greek Catholic Church and Latter-day Saint Charities, according to a March 1 article on the Church’s Middle East Newsroom.
The idea began with Mother Agnes — the abbot of a Syrian monastery who has spent years bringing relief to displaced people — and a conversation with Latter-day Saint Charities representatives Mike and Liz Freckleton about baking and distributing bread to isolated areas.
The Freckletons connected her with Abdo al Haddad, a baker who also felt the same concern for those suffering.
Though such a bakery had never been built — and government regulations and customs laws had to be met — “doors opened in ways that we never could have expected,” Liz Freckleton said.
The mobile bakery is now serving camps of internally displaced people in Northeastern Syria, with the capacity to produce up to 120,000 pieces of Arabic bread in a 24-hour period. Two more mobile bakeries have now been built and will soon be in operation in Lebanon.
“We thank with all our hearts The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for all their support in conceiving and in executing the mobile automatic bakery,” Mother Agnes said.
Read more about the mobile bakery on the Middle East Newsroom website.
