What do you call a delicately browned pastry brimming with exotically seasoned veggies? Ask native African, recent Barre, Vermont resident, and a brand new culinary entrepreneur Fuad Ndibalema, and he'll inform you it's a samosa. He's also likely to tell you his extraordinary story of hope and achievement centered around this ethnic delicacy. Ndibalema is known throughout Vermont as "Samosaman," due to the phenomenal success of his enterprise, Samosaman Natural Foods, which provides his namesake product to natural food stores and school meal programs throughout Vermont and New Hampshire.

His journey began in his native Africa, where political and economic uncertainty led him to seek refuge in the U.S. Arriving in Vermont, he learned of the Community Kitchen Program, an adjunct service program of The Vermont Foodbank, best known for distributing donated food to community food shelves and meal sites.

During the 12-week Community Kitchen training program, Ndibalema was able to transform his family recipe into a business plan. Staffers provided Ndibalema with support and advice, even inspiring him to try some variations on his recipe. "I learned so much about cooking and foods while working with the Vermont Foodbank and the Community Kitchen. I even saw how I could add new and different things to my samosas," he says, noting that his new apple samosas have been a hit in Burlington area public schools, where Ndibalema supplies the school breakfast programs with his delicious concoctions.

"Now my business is doing so well," says Ndibalema, following with his signature exuberant laugh, "and sales keep going up and up!" He visits with the Community Kitchen and Vermont Foodbank staff often, for advice or to provide snacks for his friends. "I'm always happy to go to The Vermont Foodbank," he adds. "It's such a great thing for our community."