Refugee eatery’s noble quest
A Hamilton eatery is hoping to show the world refugees can connect to the community in their new home.
While still in its infancy, the social enterprise aspires to become an authentic dining experience that will help refugees gain employment experience and get more involved in the Kiwi way of life.
Home Kitchen is the brainchild of Tania Jones who was inspired while volunteering at a refugee camp in Greece last year.
‘‘Katerina and Nikos run a project called Home for a Day,’’ Jones said.
‘‘It’s where refugees could go and eat with friends, play music, dance, learn English and experience a small piece of normality before heading back to refugee camps.’’
It left an impression on Jones.
‘‘I quickly found that language and work were huge barriers for people with a refugee background to integrate successfully into the community.
‘‘And I learned across all different cultures food was a key element that brought people together. So I thought can we connect those skills through a business opportunity that helps to connect our community.’’
Jones believes there is a huge disconnect between refugees and the Hamilton community.
‘‘We’ve got some wonderful services for former refugees and migrants but they seem to be out in the suburbs.
‘‘What we are looking to do with Home Kitchen is connect the different aspects of our community.’’
She also believes there’s a bigger story at play.
‘‘You just have to look at our mates across the ditch to see how they are treating former refugees. So we want to provide an example of how to come together as a community to show that everybody is welcome regardless of their culture or where they’re from – show some love that it’s really important to us.’’
The idea is yet to get off the ground – Home Kitchen launched its pledge me campaign on Wednesday night to raise seed funding.
The first step is to produce a pop-up kitchen at Yalla Yalla Cafe on Victoria St for three to four nights a week.
They’ll also be doing cooking classes in people’s homes or at Yalla Yalla.
Eventually, they plan to launch a food truck.
The goal is to open in mid-January if they can raise $30,000 – they’d raised just over $2000 by yesterday morning.
‘‘That will help us to recruit a team of six people with a diverse background of cultures. It will help us get the necessary equipment we need. The same costs you would expect any restaurant needs to get started.’’
Their criteria is wide.
‘‘You need to have lived a refugee background, you need to be passionate about hospitality and learning and that’s it.’’
People from Syria, Afghanistan, Burma, Colombia have already shown interest, however, Yalla Yalla is a vegetarian cafe so they are going to honour that.
‘‘So the Colombians are going, what are we going to cook, as they cook a lot of meat. That is the core nationalities and also a reflection of who is here in Hamilton as well.’’
All of the profits will go back into Home Kitchen to create more opportunities to provide work and training for former refugees.
Former Afghani refugee Taj Begum – has been in NZ with her four children nearly three years and loves everything about it.
The introduction of Home Kitchen is allowing her to live out her dream of aiming to open her own restaurant in a few years.
‘‘I like everything about cooking: the bread, the rice, bolani, samosa, and the chicken.
‘‘I enjoy making traditional Afghani food like bolani – which is a flatbread stuffed with potato, spring onion and spinach.’’
‘‘What we are looking to do with Home Kitchen is connect the different aspects of our community.’’
Tania Jones