Church World Service (CWS) Harrisburg held its first International Friendsgiving To-Go Feast on Saturday.

The event was the their first fundraiser since opening a Harrisburg location in early 2022.

CWS Harrisburg Site Director Alex Swan said the Friendsgiving was to help bridge the gap between refugees and their new home in Central Pennsylvania.

“We had some of our new refugee neighbors share some of their recipes from their home countries. We gave them all to a caterer and they prepared around 500 meals,” Swan said.

He said the meals were $20 each. Including donations, Swan said the event raised $24,000, just short of their $25,000 goal.

The meals included five different components:

An Afghani Kabuli Pilau, a recipe from Afghan refugee, Nazdana;

Yabluchnyk, or Ukrainian Apple Cake, a recipe from Ukrainian refugee, Maryna;

A Syrian Zaatir bread, a recipe from Syrian refufee, Mariam;

A Njamma Jamma from Congo, a recipe from Olive, a Democratic Republic of Congo refugee;

And Mayan Potatoes, a recipe from Guatemalan refugee, Aura.

Each refugee has their own unique story. Maryna fled Kyiv, Ukraine in 2022 with her husband and three children. She said she is looking forward to the day that all of her family are living in safety.

CWS Harrisburg’s community relations senior specialist, Durre Sharif said food is great unifier.

“Initially when we were getting these recipes from them, there was some hesitancy, like ‘Do you really think people will want to eat this? and I was like, ‘Yeah they will,’” Sharif said. “Telling them we sold 447 boxes, like Nazdana from Afghani was just blown away she’s like “Really? People wanna try my food.’”

The hope is the International Friendsgiving will continue on to become an annual fundraiser for CWS Harrisburg.

“We hope that the community will continue to embrace our new neighbors and we hope every year that we can showcase more nationalities and more of these amazing dishes,” Sharif said.