When/if refugees are being relocated to a large center with a district that may already house many compatriots and has a well developed shopping area that focusses on trying to bring in foods from the homeland so people can at least try to recreate what they left behind, it might be apropos to perhaps get someone from their new community to help you plan the 'tea' and assist with planning/cooking the food. However, are there any residents of your relatively small town or a town close by who are Syrian who you could enlist to help with this? Is there fairly easy access to the proper ingredients so you can even approximate what you think they may be missing?
Whatever you serve I am sure will be less important than the 'welcome' that holding the event will demonstrate. I am sure they will appreciate whatever you do or serve.
That said however if they will not be able to get the ingredients to continue cooking in the style they used to have (and by the way, I think most just left there only a few weeks ago, not many years ago in most cases - many have been living in apartments in Turkey or other countries - just not in Syria - countries where the foods are similar and available) and you are not that familiar with what they may be missing, I personally might err on the side of treating them to new tastes - and instead concentrate more on learning a few words of their native language - or concentrate on learning about their foods (but not trying to replicate them) so you can talk to them (possibly through an interpreter - hope there will be one available if need be?) about what and how they will eat going forward given a limited availability of their probably preferred ingredients in your particular area. They will have to adapt more quickly where you are than they would in perhaps Calgary or Vancouver or Toronto I would guess.
I thought this article from the Globe and Mail was interesting if not exactly about holding a welcome party: Why the family kitchen is an important focus when welcoming syrian refugees. It points out that what is familiar to many Syrians is Ceylon tea - perhaps boiled with sugar and served in small glass cups, and that even if you could find ingredients completely familiar to them, 'miles' will always make the food taste different.
