Migrateful Feast
A 10-week training program specially designed for refugees & migrants
Development of Migrate-ful Feast Cookery Classes
A special training program designed to aide refugee integration and develop diverse cookery class teachers and professional cooks for our community.
The Migrateful Feast training program's mission is to empower and celebrate refugees and vulnerable migrants on their journey to integration, by offering a 10-week/ 90-hour training program. Upon graduation, we will support them to run and be paid to teach classes for our Migrateful Feast Cookery classes that will be offered as fee-based ethnic cooking classes to our community.
Our program helps train refugees from passional home cooks to professional food heritage educators as leaders in ethno-gastronomy. Participating in our program can offer eligible local refugees with wider social networks, improved English language and communication skills, local food handling certifications, increased confidence, new avenues for a source of income, and opportunities to celebrate and share their food and culture!
The Current Problem:
Refugee, asylum seekers and migrants struggling to integrate and access employment
Due to legal, linguistic and social barriers, finding work can be extremely difficult for many migrants. Being unable to provide for themselves and their families has significant negative effects on self-esteem and mental health.
According to The Times of San Diego nearly 2 million college-educated immigrants labor in jobs for which they are overqualified, or cannot find work at all. "New immigrants face barriers to obtaining high-skilled jobs that may take years to overcome, including the lack of U.S. professional work experience and technical English fluency. The process for getting foreign credentials recognized in this country can be long, complicated and expensive, especially in highly regulated fields like health care."
Professional demotion is typical among the recent immigrants, including refugees, asylees and other humanitarian migrants who seek help adjusting to life in America through programs such as the International Rescue Committee (IRC) of San Diego. IRC’s program focuses on helping humanitarian migrants rebuild or start careers in the U.S. through training, coaching and scholarships. There are a lack of developmental programs, outreach, and job assistance for immigrants and displaced people in San Diego county.
Our Solution:
Kitchens without Borders! After a ten-week training program, our graduates will be invited to be paid to teach for our Migrateful Feast Cookery classes. These refugee-led experiences, for both online and in-person (COVID19 depending), will empower their societal integration by combining their food & cultural knowledge. These new food educators will have built the skills, self-esteem, and connections to offer extremely unique “ethno-gastronomic” cooking classes of their own to the public. They will more successfully raise awareness of current issues faced by migrants, while being paid to offer the most diverse food cooking program in all of San Diego, while educating others about their culture and food heritage.
