Tariq Farid’s mother instilled two valuable lessons into her children – ‘Do what you can’ and ‘As long as you have your health, you have everything.’ And today, Tariq uses those lessons to guide his philanthropic endeavors to ensure women and children have access to healthcare.

“Those words stay on the mind of every one of her kids,” Tariq said. “So, more than anything, we’re dedicating everything we do to her, and hopefully, if there is a life after, she gets the reward for it.”

Tariq’s mother passed away in 2005 from health complications that he says could have been avoided if she had access to care. More than 50% of the population in Pakistan does not have access to primary healthcare services. “She suffered from heart disease, diabetes, a little bit of all of that. Stuff that never got diagnosed fast enough. By the time it got diagnosed, the damage was done.”

Without health insurance and limited savings to cover medical expenses, Tariq’s mother had a tough choice to make: feed her children or take care of her health. “[My Siblings and I] want to do our part, so no one has to make that choice,” Tariq said.

Tariq has made it his lifelong mission to fulfill this personal promise to his mother. He started his first business, a flower shop, when he was a 17-year-old high school student. Now, a lifetime of hard work and success affords him the opportunity to use philanthropy to honor the life of his mother, who ironically, was his first employee. She didn’t speak English, but she kept an eye on the business and helped customers while he was at school. Though she only had a 5th grade education, he credits his mother for his business acumen and success.

“She always wanted to be paid, so I would pay her $50 a week. My mother was one of the best entrepreneurs I ever met, without knowing she was an entrepreneur. Where she grew up girls couldn’t leave the village, so she couldn’t go beyond the 5th grade.”

As the Founder and CEO of Edible Arrangements, Tariq is an international businessman. But when he started out in 1999, he had trouble securing a loan. That’s when an unexpected investor came to his rescue. “My mother gave me my first loan ever. A building came up and I was trying to get a loan and I was short about $50,000. And she says, take me to my safe deposit box. I’ll give it to you.” He had no idea she had that kind of money and was stunned by her offer.

“She gave me $40,000 in cash. I never understood why she would take us to a safe deposit box once a month. We thought she was putting her jewelry in there. But she would stack all her cash in there. How they did it is mind boggling.”

As his mother taught him, he’s “doing what he can” in the U.S and abroad. For the past three years, he has served as a devoted member of the Wellstar North Fulton Regional Health Board, helping Wellstar fulfill its mission to provide access to high-quality care to every person, regardless of their ability to pay.

In fall 2023, Tariq and his wife made a $100,000 pledge  to the Wellstar Women’s Health Breast Screening Voucher Program, which provides free mammograms to uninsured women from low-income households. This voucher program serves approximately 1,000 -1500 women every year. The Farid’s donation is made in honor of his mother, Salma Khatoon Farid, who will be the namesake for these specific program funds.

Furthermore, for the past 20 years, Tariq has used half of the money from his mother’s initial investment in his business to build a legacy for his mother in Pakistan. When Tariq attempted to pay back the loan to his mother, she would only accept half. She used half to pay for her daughter’s wedding. Knowing she didn’t have much longer to live, she implored him to use the remaining $20K to do something in her memory.

He did just that. He used the money to convert her former home to a small hospital that provides free healthcare to women and children in Pakistan. The hospital serves about 4,000 patients a month who otherwise would not have access to healthcare.

“You’ll see a mother come in with an infection she has had for 3-4 weeks. And I’ll go to her and ask why she didn’t come in earlier, since it‘s a free hospital.” Tariq says the response is always the same – they don’t have money for medication. Unfortunately, they face the same dilemma as his mother – they must choose between medicine and feeding their family. They always choose their family over their health.

“It’s heart wrenching to see that everyday moms, dads, and grandmothers have to make the decision between their health and their food. Our job is easy. We just wrote a check, but we want to do anything we can to raise more awareness. That is what we have to make easy.”  

It gets easier when we do it together. Making a real impact in healthcare equity and access to care takes unprecedented partnership and philanthropy. If you’d like to accept Tariq’s mother’s invitation to “do what you can”, then we invite you to partner with the Wellstar Foundation to help us continue to address the challenges that keep women from the care they need and deserve. In doing so, we’re not just caring for women – we’re improving the overall health and wellbeing of our communities. To give, visit wellstar.org/donate.