Everett bakery selling Middle Eastern pizzas to help earthquake victims

EVERETT — Want a delicious treat for a good cause?

Through Feb. 16, Alida’s Bakery in Everett will donate 100% of the profits from its manakish sales to earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria. The donations will go to Islamic Relief USA, which made a global appeal to raise $24 million for urgent aid for the countries.

“This may sound cliche but it’s actually true: When we are working and making these items, absolutely we are thinking of these people. And it feels really good to know what we are doing now is going to help,” said Alida’s owner Nechirvan Zebari.

Turkey’s president has called the magnitude 7.8 earthquake the “disaster of the century.” More than 33,000 deaths have been recorded since the quake hit the region on Feb. 6. Tens of thousands of people have been injured.

First responders continue to search rubble for survivors.

Zebari said videos of apartment buildings “collapsing like dominoes” and rescuers pulling adults and kids out of the ruin gave him an “overwhelming feeling of wanting to do something.”

“My first thought was, ‘OK I’m a nurse, and I have valuable skills. Maybe I could just buy a plane ticket and go there,’” said Zebari, whose family moved to the U.S. from Iraq as refugees when he was 5 years old.

But before he made the purchase, his wife “talked more reason into me” by pointing out the severity of the situation and need for a clear plan.

“It’s winter over there, and right now there are thousands and thousands of people sleeping outside because their homes were destroyed,” Zebari said. “And on top of that, people are just too afraid to go into buildings that are still there … so this was probably a really bad idea for me to go there without a group.”

Instead, the couple decided to use Zebari’s Kurdish bakery to fundraise for relief efforts. He picked the most profitable item in his shop, the manakish, or “Middle Eastern pizza,” and decided to send all the proceeds to an established aid organization with low overhead costs.

Manakish, or singular man’ousheh, are a popular breakfast item made of baked dough topped with herbs, vegetables, cheese or meat. Alida’s sells vegetarian manakish for $3 each, or meat ones for $8.

For the fundraiser, Zebari was able to purchase the toppings at a steep discount from Goodies Mediterranean Market, the Middle Eastern grocery store in Seattle where he sources most of the ingredients for the bakery. That means the out-of-pocket cost for Alida’s is about 10 cents per man’ousheh, so most of what customers pay is donated.

“Money is very powerful, right? You can do so much with money, especially in a third world (country), a couple dollars will go such a long way,” Zebari said.

The fundraiser started on Feb. 9 and extends through Feb. 16. After the first day, Zebari had raised at least $1,200. About $500 came from food sales, and the rest from cash donations.

“A lot of people just say, ‘Keep the change,’” Zebari said.

His goal is to raise at least $5,000.

“The big thing I want people to know is they don’t have to come here to donate. They can go find whatever organization they are comfortable with and donate there also,” Zebari said. “But a lot of our customers are Middle Eastern and Mediterranean, so they are not really familiar with this type of concept. It’s really nice for them to have a spot to go to where they can donate.”

About two dozen other aid organizations with branches in the Pacific Northwest are accepting donations for their aid efforts, according to the Seattle Times. Those include UNICEF, Save the Children, Turkish Red Crescent and Syria’s White Helmets.

For those who would like to participate in the fundraiser, the bakery is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day except Wednesday, and located at 607 SE Everett Mall Way Suite 9a, Everett.

Mallory Gruben is a Report for America corps member who writes about education for The Daily Herald.

Mallory Gruben: 425-339-3035; mallory.gruben@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @MalloryGruben.