This weekend, at least 200 low-income Oakland students and their families will sit down to enjoy a Nowruz, or Persian New Year, meal: turmeric-tinged rice, a salad with pomegranate-molasses dressing, and the Persian-style “meatloaf” preparation known as kebab digi—all provided for free courtesy of Komaaj, a popular Northern Iranian restaurant in San Francisco’s Mission District.
The idea behind the meal giveaway is for the local Persian community to give back to those in need, especially during a time of economic hardship exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis. But Sara Ahmadian, founder of The Laundry art gallery and events space in the Mission that is spearheading the initiative, says it’s also meant to be a form of cultural exchange: For many of the children and their families, it will be their first experience with Persian food.
The Laundry—where, not coincidentally, Komaaj has taken up residence since this past summer—solicited donations from the Bay Area’s Persian community to pay for the meals. To distribute them, it’s partnering with Trybe, an Oakland-based nonprofit that works closely with families of students in low-income school districts, helping to make sure they’ve had food to eat while in-person schooling has been on pause. All told, Ahmadian expects to distribute more than 500 Nowruz meals over the course of the traditional 13-day holiday period, which marks the start of spring.
Ahmadian and Komaaj chef and co-owner Hanif Sadr, both of Persian descent, say this notion of taking care of people in need is deeply ingrained in the traditions of Nowruz itself. Sadr recalls that when he was growing up in Iran, some wealthy families might buy clothing or shoes for needy children in the days leading up to the festival—or, in an even more direct parallel, they’d pay a restaurant to feed low-income people in the neighborhood.
“My grandma would send my young uncle to buy 10-pound bags of rice—10 or 20 of them,” Sadr says. “And then he’d deliver them to people my grandma knew needed help.”
