Lebanon’s economic collapse was ranked among the world’s three worst crises since 1850. In 2024, war further worsened conditions, forcing over 15 million people to flee.

For the 5.7 million who remained, mostly women and children, basic survival became a daily struggle, with no income or infrastructure.

Puck, a trusted dairy brand across the Middle East, had previously supported women through the “Selfless Shelves” initiative, helping them sell homemade preserves and foods through retail.

But as war disrupted logistics and closed supermarkets, that model collapsed. In the Middle East, Ramadan is a time when brands are expected to act with generosity, making the need for purpose-driven action even more urgent.

With no shelf space left, we turned to what the women still had: their family recipes, treasured heirlooms passed down through generations.

The ambition was to reimagine commerce by turning cultural survival into a sustainable and attractive business model for partners.

By licensing these recipes as intellectual property to Lebanese and fusion restaurants around the world, Puck activated a scalable B2B2C model that gave chefs new revenue-generating dishes, diners a way to support displaced communities, and displaced women a path to rebuild their lives.

By transforming these women into business partners, the initiative also attracted a new customer base of restaurants committed to purpose-driven growth.

The war in Lebanon disrupted daily life for millions, making it impossible for Puck to continue its Selfless Shelves initiative, which had supported women through the sale of homemade goods in retail stores.

With physical logistics and shelf space no longer viable, especially during Ramadan, when food is a powerful symbol of generosity, Puck needed a new way to activate its brand meaningfully.

Despite being displaced, many women continued cooking cherished family recipes in the most challenging conditions. Puck saw an opportunity to transform this cultural resilience into a new model of economic empowerment. The challenge: How could Puck turn these intangible assets, family recipes, into a scalable business solution that supports displaced women, maintains brand purpose, and engages global consumers.

To bring Recipe for Change to life, we began by partnering with renowned Lebanese culinary influencer Anthony Rahayel, who helped identify 80 displaced women living in conflict zones.

We documented their personal stories and traditional recipes, each made using Puck products, through short films, often shot under dangerous and unpredictable conditions as locations became unsafe without warning. Next, we brought these recipes to Lebanese and fusion restaurant owners in countries like the UAE, KSA, UK, USA, and Australia.

We secured partnerships with 96 establishments, each agreeing to a 50-50 revenue-sharing model for every dish sold. The women trained chefs remotely via video calls to ensure their dishes were recreated faithfully and featured authentically on restaurant menus.

To deepen emotional connection and consumer engagement, each dish was served on hand-illustrated plates featuring the women’s portraits, accompanied by QR codes that linked diners to their full stories. Their names and faces were also displayed on in-store posters and menus, while dishes were made available through food delivery apps, extending their reach well beyond the walls of the restaurants.

This initiative turned heritage into a new form of economic resilience, linking tradition, technology, and global solidarity.

120,960 meals were sold across 96 restaurants(28 cities), an amazing result, especially as we asked consumers to do something new: not buy Puck products off a supermarket shelf, but step into restaurants and order specials from a menu. Here’s what that shift delivered:

1)IMPACT FOR RESTAURANTS: • 16.67% increase in profits • 56% average rise in footfall • 350+ new inquiries from restaurants in cities like London, Madrid, Toronto • 230K+ requests from Lebanese expats to bring the initiative to their cities

2)IMPACT FOR WOMEN: • 807.12% increase in revenue • $10,886 average income per woman in two months—equivalent to nearly 3 years’ salary for a micro-enterprise in Lebanon • Women reinvested earnings into rebuilding homes, children's funds and growing their businesses

3)IMPACT FOR PUCK: • $407K+ earned media • 552M+ reach • +21% (rare double-digit) growth in brand love in MENA • +33% uplift in sales across businesses and customers