The power of food in refugee integration

Written by Khatia Mikadze

Hot Bread Kitchen. Photo by Christine Han

Across all cultures, food is about sharing, community, and hospitality; it is an international language that is not spoken, but rather tasted and felt. It’s not hard to understand how food can be used as a tool to help to build relationships around the world — in New York alone you can’t even walk down the street without passing restaurants serving food from countries like Cuba, Thailand, Brazil, France, Morocco and the Middle East. Food is our unspoken ambassador, bringing people from various cultures together who wouldn’t cross paths otherwise and immediately providing a common ground.

Thanks to many enterprising and compassionate companies across the globe, the creativity and power of food has become a way to help refugees across the world resettle and integrate into new communities — helping them not only to restart their lives in a foreign place, but to learn invaluable skills and find work.

The journey of a refugee is not an easy one, nor is it quick. In 2015, the United States resettled 69,933 refugees. According to a recent proposal, this number could increase to 85,000 in 2016 — that’s a significant number of people who need housing, jobs and support to begin their new lives in the US. Resettlement often takes anywhere from 18 to 24 months — sometimes more — from referral to arrival in the United States, and timing is crucial for vulnerable refugees seeking safe haven. One of the main indicators of successful integration is adequate and effective job training, which is often missing from the resettlement process in the US. However, there are programs that exist in order to provide refugees with a chance to use their skillsets — or learn new ones — while acclimatizing to their lives in the US.

Hot Bread Kitchen. Photo by Christine Han

Hot Bread Kitchen (HBK) in East Harlem is one of the emerging and non-profit kitchens that employs foreign-born women to ensure their successful integration into the United States. HBK runs the Bakers in Training Program, an intensive six-month-long program that provides paid on-the-job training to foreign-born and low-income women. Graduates of this program usually go on to work at bakeries and restaurants around the city. Since HBK’s start in 2007, 53 women have been given full-time jobs after graduating.

HBK also offers an Incubate Program that launched in 2011. It offers start-up food businesses and entrepreneurs hands-on business training to help them grow their food ventures — 27 of which have graduated the program.

A few weeks ago New Women New Yorkers held a workshop at Hot Bread Kitchen for 9 of their bakers in training. The workshop was a blend of teamwork, public speaking and US work culture and included several interactive activities for the women bakers to practice their skills with each other.

Another New York-based kitchen, Eat Offbeat, offers meals-to-go that have been prepared by refugees from Syria, Iraq, Eritrea and Nepal. Similar initiatives have popped up across the country, including The Bread Project in Berkeley, California, which trains individuals with limited resources to work towards self-sufficiency through skills instruction, on-the-job training, and help establishing a career in the foodservice industry. These programs are no stranger to European countries either.

In light of the current refugee crisis in Europe, one of many initiatives abroad is Refugee Food Festival organized this summer in France. The festival provided a space for refugees to use their cooking skills while connecting with local communities. Several restaurants in Paris also opened doors to visiting refugee chefs from Iran, Syria, Chechnya, Ivory Coast and other countries, and Le Recho is planning to provide cooking classes at refugee camps. Across Europe, many other non-profits provide similar classes, events and job training, including Give Something Back to Berlin in Germany, Just Bread in London, Iusta Res Social Cooperative in Bologna, Italy, the African Collective Kitchen “OneLoveKitchen” in Greece, and Options Foodlab, also in Greece.

Around the world, building connections is the key to successfully integrating vulnerable, marginalized communities, such as refugees. Programs like Hot Bread Kitchen and One Love Kitchen, in cooperation with other community-oriented organizations have the potential to provide valuable skills, personal connections and financial stability to those who need it most, and they do so through one of the things people around the world have in common: a love for food. By empowering and encouraging refugees — in the United States and around the world — to uncover and develop their potential, we can help to make communities across the globe more vibrant and diverse.