Passion, enthusiasm, advocacy, contribution, and excellence: If you put together the first letters of these five words, they spell out ‘peace’. And the words represent the core values of Peace by Chocolate, a successful Nova Scotia business — built by a Syrian refugee family — that is officially expanding this week.

“That’s why we call the company Peace by Chocolate, because we believe that peace is something so noble everyone should fight for, and chocolate is our product of happiness,” said Tareq Hadhad, owner and CEO of Peace by Chocolate.

On April 8, there will be a ribbon cutting for the company’s new store in downtown Halifax. The ceremony was initially scheduled for March 4, but was cancelled because of increased COVID-19 restrictions in Nova Scotia at that time.

The outdoor event is expected to include speeches from community leaders, including Nova Scotia Premier Iain Rankin and Halifax Mayor Mike Savage.

The Hadhad family had a factory in Damascus, Syria, where they made chocolate for more than 20 years. Hadhad said it was the second largest chocolate production facility in the Middle East.

But the factory was bombed in 2012, forcing the family to flee to Lebanon before travelling to Canada as refugees and settling in Antigonish, N.S. in 2016. There, in the town 160 kilometres northeast of Halifax, the family established the first Peace by Chocolate store — an achievement that has drawn national attention and admiration for a family that has overcome such upheaval.

Hadhad said he never imagined they would open a store in downtown Halifax after “losing everything in the world” in the early months of Syria’s decade-long civil war.

The family began planning the new store in early 2020. Hadhad said he hopes the new store and grand opening will allow the family to meet customers from across the city.

“We believe that people need to celebrate, and people need reasons to cheer up, and chocolate is a product of cheerfulness,” he said.

Despite the postponement of the grand opening — and the rescheduled launch ceremony for April 8 — Hadhad said the family wanted to begin selling products in time for Easter.

The store’s slogan — “Sow Much Peace” — aims to continue bringing families together after the Easter season.

“With each Easter product, we have included some violet seeds to plant so when people eat their chocolate, they will still have seeds to plant as a family,” said Hadhad.

“The reason why we chose a violet,” he added, “is because it is a symbol of cheerfulness.”

The company sells more than 60 products, including peace bars, forgiveness bars, pride bars, welcome to Canada bars, and many more. Their chocolate products ship across Canada and around the world.

The Halifax location is the only place in the country that contains all of the company’s products.