After taking a chance across the world, Farrah Sibai proves that you can always begin again.
By Regine Malibirian
Even as the Co-Founder and President of Afia, a leading brand of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food in the United States, Farrah Moussallati Sibai’s “biggest, best and favorite achievement in all [her]life” are her daughters.
15 years ago, Sibai endured the passing of her youngest daughter, the hospitalization of her middle and the separation of her eldest. Days after losing her youngest, Lu-Jaine, to a sudden illness, Sibai decided to relocate from Syria to return to the United Kingdom in pursuit of healthcare for her middle daughter, Serene. Though Serene’s kidney disorder steadily improved in the new country, Sibai lost custody of her eldest daughter, Lana, who still lived with her father in Syria as conflict descended into war.
“We’d lost absolutely everything there,” recalls Sibai. “I was back in England trying to save my middle daughter’s life. And at this moment in time, I was just on my knees. I was at rock bottom. I was in so much pain and anguish.”
Sibai not only lost a connection to her daughter but to her late father, as his last possessions were swept up in the chaos. Despite the uncontrollable, Sibai continued to pursue avenues of remaining in touch with Lana.
While in England, Sibai alternated her time between working and looking after Serene in the hospital. Eventually, Sibai’s friends introduced her to her husband, Yassin Sibai – a computer engineer in Dallas. As the father of three daughters Yassin welcomed Sibai and Serene to his Texas home. Though the two families integrated well together, Sibai wasn’t adjusting to her new city.
“I’d never been to Texas before,” says Sibai. “So when I first came here, obviously I’m leaving a life behind, right? There was something about Dallas that just did not click. It was a very fast-paced life and that’s what I needed a break from.”
In response to Sibai’s reservations, Yassin suggested a move to Austin, promising that “Austin is very different.” Initially Sibai had doubts about how unique two cities coule be that are hardly 200 miles apart. Her husband insisted in the face of her skepticism. It took Sibai almost a year to see Texas’ capital for herself.
“The moment I stepped foot off of that plane into the airport, I felt different,” Sibai shares. “The people were different. So giving, so friendly and just happy.”
Sibai wasted no time getting involved with her community in Austin. She arrived in time to experience a surge of refugees in the city – of which a significant amount were also Syrian – with whom she shared the pursuit of a new start. According to the Immigration Research Initiative, Texas leads the rest of the states in the number of refugees received. In November 2015, former City of Austin Mayor, Steve Adler, unequivocally wrote that “Syrian refugees are welcome in Austin” in the Texas Tribune. Between 2009 and 2019, the Austin American-Statesman reports that almost 6,000 refugees resettled in Austin specifically.
Sibai volunteered her time and translation skills to helping refugees immediately after moving to Austin. She remembers a local friend taking interest in helping out and posting on social media to request donations for furniture and home necessities, which led to a truck full of items that furnished homes for refugee families. Sibai fell in love with her new city and it loved her back.
“I’m not a refugee, but I empathize a lot with the pain and struggles that they’ve gone through. Whether it’s the loss of children, the loss of everything back home, starting in a new country, new culture,” says Sibai. “So I spent my time volunteering to help these refugees – and that’s all I could do, just volunteer my time. But I always wished and wanted to be able to do more.”
A year after relocating their blended family to Austin, Yassin’s parents chose to flee Syria before the borders closed. They had not weeks, but hours, to gather all that they would be able to bring with them to the U.S. Yassin’s mother, Fadia, made sure they did not leave without their family’s heirloom recipe book, humbly handwritten in Arabic.
“Just like the refugees that I was helping, she also struggled,” Sibai says. “She really missed her life. She missed her family and she missed home. It was her recipe book that would give her comfort. She would take it out and she would cook us the most amazing and authentic meals.”
In 2016, that little black recipe book, along with “moments of pain, moments of purpose and a white space in the market” came together as the fertile ground that sprouted the idea for Afia. Her mother-in-law’s home cooking made Sibai curious about her local grocery store’s frozen Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food options. When she found nothing, “everything came together to create this perfect puzzle.”
Sibai and her family had the recipes and the idea. They just needed a name. Together, they chose the word “afia,” which is an Arabic toast meaning “to your health.” Considering Sibai’s journey with her daughters’ health, the name symbolizes an intent as well as a blessing. Guided by Fadia’s high standards and authentic palate, Sibai and Yassin chose falafel and kibbeh to break into the market. Falafel is approachable as well as nostalgic and kibbeh presents a convenience, as it’s typically labor intensive to make.
Kibbeh, a shell of beef or lamb and bulgur wheat that encases a stuffing made of minced meat, onions and spices, is Syria’s national dish. There are dozens of ways to serve kibbeh: raw, baked, fried, grilled, with yogurt, layered. Afia describes theirs as a “meat croquette” prepared traditionally.
“It’s a gourmet appetizer dish that everyone loves but no one wants to make,” Sibai explains. “To us, it’s just part of every celebration that we have – whether it’s a wedding, a party or Eid. It’s a staple to us.”
Sibai understands the power of food to educate through connection. After all, everyone, regardless of culture, can relate to a feast day. Growing up, her family’s yearly tradition of fasting for Ramadan and breaking bread together established a sense of comfort and closeness that she has passed down to her daughters and shares with her customers and staff through Afia.
“Food is the fastest way to travel,” says Sibai. “Food is a universal language that has no boundaries and no barriers. We can all understand it, and we can all speak it. Through the smells, through the flavors, through the textures, you can learn a lot about one’s culture and the way that they live.”
Sibai’s pride in her heritage reflects in the way she runs her business. Because of her family’s deep personal connection to their recipes, Sibai took on the challenge of learning the intricacies of manufacturing at scale.
“We made a decision from day one: we wanted to stay in control,” asserts Sibai. “We didn’t want our product co-manufactured. We wanted my mother-in-law’s true family recipes to stay close to us.”
Balancing Afia’s efficient production and the integrity of their food is a major point of pride for Sibai. Instead of conforming their family recipes to what machinery is already available, Sibai customizes the machines to their dishes. Though she didn’t previously have a background in the food industry, manufacturing has turned into her favorite part of the business. By hand, her mother-in-law can only make 50 kibbeh per hour. At Afia’s factory, they are producing 15,000 kibbeh in the same amount of time. Their falafel production rate is even more impressive at 12 million per month. Afia also produces four different varieties of plant-based frozen meals and have recently launched a spice line. Even at this scale, their team approves of everything that leaves their plant.
Just like their machinery, Sibai and Yassin have refined their collaboration to suit the needs of their lives together as co-founders, spouses and parents. Yassin’s strengths with numbers and sales complement Sibai’s in logistics and operations. Though they spend their days onsite at work, their responsibilities often keep them in separate areas.
“I would definitely say that the lines can blur,” says Sibai. “It’s natural for you to talk through your day and what’s going on outside of work hours. Sometimes it’s difficult to break out of that, but if you’re conscious of it, you’ll start to work on it and then you’ll draw that line.”
Though automation gets Afia the numbers, their staff is all heart. They started with a team of two and have since grown to a team of 30. Through Afia, Sibai gave herself the opportunity to progress from volunteering with refugees to hiring them. Her first hire was a newly transplanted refugee who was struggling to find work to provide for his pregnant wife because he hadn’t yet learned English. Sibai not only employed him but also ensured his family’s immigration status, healthcare, finances and education were established in a new country. From that foundation, her first employee has been able to provide a stable life for his wife and daughters.
“We employ refugees of all sorts,” says Sibai. “Refugees and their plights and their struggles are the same regardless of where they’re from. But now I would say over 50 percent of the employees on the ground are refugees.
Through Afia, Sibai has also fully sponsored another employee with their university tuition.
“It’s really important to me to be able to support them,” says Sibai. “I’ve been in moments of need of help. And I know the impact that can have, to get you to another place where you can start and stand on your feet again.”
Sibai’s passion and purpose feed each other, pushing her pursuit of sharing her culture and helping her people through Afia. Though she certainly has ambitious business goals (her vision is for Afia to be the “go-to” Middle Eastern brand in the United States), what ultimately and definitively drives her work is transforming the grief of her previous life to leading change for her family and community.
“The goal that touches my heart the most is the more impactful I can be, the more help I can give and the more support to the community that I can provide,” says Sibai. “That is what touches my heart the most. So my goal, hopefully, is just to be able to continue to grow, to be able to support the people that need support and be there for them.”
Sibai’s vision is infectious. Her daughters have witnessed the growth of Afia from a farmer’s market stall to a factory since they were early teenagers. Sibai recalls the girls assisting with cooking and even outselling Sibai and Yassin on the weekends at Lakeline and Mueller. Now, as young adults, each of Sibai’s daughters are translating her philosophy of reciprocation in their own way – even joking that they’ll eventually “take over” the company. Inspired by her childhood struggles with health, Serene is studying medicine to pass the care she received forward. Sibai’s eldest, Lana, reunited with her mother when she turned 18 and is now a production manager at the plant.
“My eldest daughter was separated from me when she was six-years-old, says Sibai. “There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. She [stands]on her feet so beautifully. It was tough for 12 years – you know – trying to fight for my daughter, but I believed that she was going to come back to me. I kept fighting for her. And she did. She came back to me.”
Sibai’s faith in herself and her community of support has remained steadfast, despite enduring a series of unforgiving hardships. She understands not only the devastating loss of restarting but the potential and opportunity one can find on the other side of trying.
“My piece of advice to women having to start over is to believe, reflects Sibai. “But understand the word ‘believe.’ In this context, it’s a feeling of absolute certainty. Having that true belief in yourself, in what you want to achieve and what you need to overcome is what is going to get you to the next step. So, yes, belief is a very strong word. It’s a very big word.”