Jabbar Raufi, 36, left his home in Kabul in 1989 after growing up there during the Soviet occupation.
“I didn’t want to be enlisted as a soldier, war is not a happy time, so I left my home to come to Canada.”
He hopes to visit his native Afghanistan some day.
“I pray for Afghanistan to be peaceful,” he said at his stand outside the E-wing on North Campus. “For over 24 years I have never seen it like that.”
He appreciates the tolerance and friendliness of Canadian society.
“You do your job, that’s it,” he said. “Where you’re from, what culture you are, what village you’re from – it doesn’t matter here.”
Raufi dropped out of school at the age of nine to work as a tailor.
He started working as a hotdog vendor five years ago so he could earn more money to support his wife Farida and three children.
He sells up to 200 hotdogs a day.
“I like it a lot. People are really friendly and they don’t bother me.”
Every day he travels daily from his home in Toronto.
In all types of weather he works at his hotdog stand to serve hungry students.
“The only bad part of my job is when it is really cold outside and the students don’t come.”
He enjoys summer most, when there aren’t as many students around and he works shorter days.
“I just come in for lunch, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. I make money then I go home, relax, and play volleyball.”
He likes to spend free time with his family and dreams of owning a restaurant at Humber one day.
With hotdogs for $2.50 and sausages for $3.50, taxes included, students keep coming back for the food and the service.
“I like the hotdog guy,” said accounting Amarbir Bal. “His prices fit my pocket and he is a nice, friendly guy.”
“The food is quality street meat,” said Brian Cole, a 3D model and visual effects student who eats there once a week. “He’s a friendly dude.”
To help draw people outside Raufi offers a money-back guarantee.
“I make delicious hot dogs and delicious sausages,” he said. “If they don’t like it, they get their money back.”
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