Newcomer Kitchen

ABOUT US Newcomer Kitchen is a project that invites newly-arrived Syrian refugee women to cook a weekly meal in a community kitchen. The meals are sold online for pickup or delivery, and the proceeds shared among the cooks. We have launched a FundRazer campaign to build the organization and replicate this idea with any newcomer group, in any restaurant kitchen, in any city in the world. OUR STORY In March 2016, Len Senator of Toronto's "The Depanneur" became aware of the many Syrian families who were being housed in hotels without any access to kitchens to cook for themselves or their families. He thought, “I have a kitchen; how could I make it available to them?” By mid-April, with the help of Cara Benjamin-Pace and a passionate group of volunteers — including refugees from the hotels — they were able to invite a group of Syrian moms to come cook. The experience was amazing, full of chatter, laughter and incredible food. The pictures they posted went viral, with thousands of views, likes and supportive comments. That’s when they really knew they were onto something important. By early May, the newcomers had found homes and their focus shifted from making food to making a living. The meals were put online for sale online; they sold out in a matter of hours. This provided enough revenue to pay for all the ingredients, kitchen costs, and still have a few hundred dollars left for the cooks. We now had the foundation of a new kind of food movement, one that could transform newcomer talent into amazing food, meaningful cultural exchange and real economic opportunity. The project became a magnet for new opportunities: a Syrian brunch pop-up, a bread baking project, a gardening project, catering offers, even a path to creating a Syrian pop-up restaurant… As other restaurants took interest, it became clear that the potential impact was huge — that this idea could work for any newcomers, in any kitchen, in any city in the world!