Olive Tree Catering

You can find Olive Tree Catering in the Farm Shed most weekends selling baklava, hummus, baba ghanouj, and plenty of other Syrian delicacies. Ibtisam Masto founded Olive Tree shortly after she arrived in the States. She is a Syrian refugee who is serving flavors of her heritage at the Findlay Outdoor Market nearly every weekend and through thoughtfully-designed catering spreads. 

Ibtisam didn’t work when she lived in Syria. When she fled to Lebanon during the war, she started cooking professionally, where she learned their health code and food business law. But she had to learn an entirely new set of rules and systems when she immigrated to the US and started Olive Tree. “Most people that come as a refugee… it’s very hard to learn about the system, about the rules, because each country has different rules,” she says.

While she was still getting her business off the ground, Ibtisam received a Findlay Kitchen Scholarship, which helped cover costs for essential equipment like a hot case and a small refrigerator for her Outdoor Market setup. She was also granted 100 free hours to book at Findlay Kitchen, which she spent developing and testing recipes and perfecting her packaging alongside the staff, who helped her navigate Ohio’s health code, food packaging laws, and a myriad of other legal hoops that new food businesses have to jump through. 

The Findlay Kitchen staff has walked alongside Ibtisam along every step of her journey. They’ve helped her book her time in the kitchen, walked her through inspections and licensing, and searched for the right equipment for her Market setups.  “The [staff] here is very helpful. I really appreciate them,” she says. “They support me a lot, and I won’t forget that.”

There are dozens of businesses like Olive Tree who would greatly benefit from a scholarship to help them ramp up production, purchase new equipment, or cover the cost of new licensing. Please consider donating to the Findlay Kitchen Scholarship Fund to support more small business owners like Ibtisam.