| 19 June 2020
Summary: Refugee Week is an annual festival of culture, arts and educational activities; We are proud of Migrateful who have created great educational and cultural exchange opportunities for migrants through an empowering cookery initiative.
Migrateful, a linguistic and cookery initiative established in 2017 with a mission to support the UK’s migrant community with employment and independence. Since its establishment, Migrateful has successfully run over 650 classes, supported 45 chefs and 6 of those chefs have gone on to create their own catering businesses.
Due to language barriers and unrecognised qualifications many migrants, refugees and asylum seekers are unable to find employment and struggle to integrate into society. However, many have found sanctuary in Migrateful.
Migrateful’s cookery classes are led by migrants who are passionate about food and want to share their traditional cuisines with the public. The classes are also an opportunity for migrants to learn or improve their English through weekly English language classes and training sessions provided by the organisation. This allows them to gain confidence, experience cultural exchange and eventually lead their own cookery classes with paying participants.
“Migrateful helps them to feel really celebrated and welcomed in this country and helps them to meet people, practice their English and gain work experience so they can go on to get other jobs.” Jess Thompson, Founder.
MTVH’s Migration Foundation funded the organisation in 2019, enabling Migrateful to expand and develop its current model and become more sustainable. The organisation was heavily impacted by Covid-19 resulting in cancellations of all face-to-face classes, their main source of income. While the classes were successfully launched online, the future is still uncertain for many of those involved. This is why it is more important than ever to raise awareness of Migrateful’s cookery classes and how have provided migrants with financial stability and an opportunity to integrate with society.
Click here find out more or to book an online cookery class with one of the Migrateful chefs.