Home Kitchen - An Eatery Showcasing The Best Food Our Diverse Former Refugee Community Has To Offer!

Project 2018-08-31 12:47:48 +1200

A place where cultures unite, friendships are formed and stories are shared.

Home Kitchen is a social enterprise focused on empowering former refugees to flourish by providing work and training opportunities that showcase the diverse food and cultures that exist in the mighty Waikato.

Our Vision

We’ve teamed up with our mates at Yalla Yalla Cafe to launch the first stage of Home Kitchen - a pop up restaurant.

But wait - there’s more Home Kitchen goodness to come!

We’ll roll out other great taste experiences like cooking classes, catering and fundraising events that support refugee community initiatives here and overseas - providing more training & work opportunities, ka pai!

We believe that the power of sharing kai and culture helps build stronger communities. Home Kitchen is a place for people to truly experience the things that unite us - let’s build longer tables folks and not higher walls!

What can you expect at Home Kitchen?

At Home Kitchen we're all about creating an authentic dining experience, whether your joining us for a meal with friends, whanau or solo, you can guarantee an amazing taste experience! We'll run group Cooking Classes, either from Yalla Yalla Cafe or the comfort of your own home. Learn about different cultures, share stories and indulge in the beautiful diversity that exists right here in Hamilton.

We also care about showcasing other talents within the former refugee community and supporting refugee-led initiatives both here and overseas - this means you can expect future fundraising events and unique one-off dining experiences.

As a social enterprise, our profits will go towards providing more employment and training opportunities through Home Kitchen and supporting other refugee-led initiatives both here and overseas.

What will your money be spent on?

Help us achieve our goal and all those hard-working dollars will go towards setting up the pop up kitchen and launching our cooking classes. We are aiming to start with a team of six members from a range of diverse cultures, creating a unique dining experience. We also need practical items such as fridges, cooking equipment, food, menus, uniform - all the things you’d expect from an eatery!

The restaurant is just phase one of the Home Kitchen dream..

Stage One - Launch Home Kitchen pop-up restaurant & cooking classes early 2019

Stage Two - Fundraising events & unique dining experience that support refugee-led initiatives both here and overseas. Grow opportunities for training across hospitality, business management, marketing & sales.

Future dreams  - we have heaps of ideas on how we might grow Home Kitchen to increase our impact, like launching a catering service or food truck - would be cool to take the uniqueness of Home Kitchen on a road trip around Aotearoa! We’ll continue to dream up great plans, but for now we’re focused on launching Stage One of Home Kitchen.

Our Story

After following the refugee crisis and volunteering at Kara Tepe Camp in Lesvos, Greece, Tania returned to New Zealand seeking ways to better support those with a lived refugee experience to thrive, here in Aotearoa.

The inspiration for the name, Home Kitchen, came from volunteering with Katerina & Nikos of Home for a Day, a social kitchen supporting the refugee community living on Lesvos.  A greek couple, Katerina & Nikos have dedicated their life to creating a loving space where refugees can come and eat with friends, play music, dance, learn english and experience a small piece of normality before heading back to Moria Camp - a place described by those living there as a 'prison'. We hope to provide support to Home for a Day through fundraising events at Home Kitchen so that they can continue the wonderful work that they do.

There are over 65 million people being displaced globally, as at end of 2017 and one person becomes displaced every 2 seconds – less than the time it takes to read this sentence. That’s people like you and me. The greatest barriers for refugees resettling into a new country is language and employment opportunities, Home Kitchen is on a mission to demonstrate how things can be done differently. How together, we can create more opportunities for those with a lived refugee experience to gain employment, showcase their beautiful culture and as a result integrate successfully into the wider community.

Our vision is to create experiences where people can come together, connect over diverse dishes and learn more about what makes each of us unique as well as, united. A place where we are all valued. A place we can all call, home.

Thank you for your support,

Tania & The Home Kitchen Team

x

Our Team

The Home Kitchen Trust team is a collective of passionate individuals who have experience working directly with former refugees resettling in New Zealand. From left to right, Victoria Ferero (Community Advisor), Camilla Carty-Melis (Trustee), Tania Jones (Trustee) & Jason Penny (Trustee). We are in the process of hiring other members of the team who will help shape the values and experience of Home Kitchen....watch this space for new faces!

Partnership with Yalla Yalla Cafe

Yalla Yalla Cafe is a social enterprise and operates as a cafe between Monday - Saturday, 7.30am - 3pm. As part of their vision, to create connections within our community, the good folk at Yalla Yalla are providing the Home Kitchen team with the use of their cafe space in the evenings - amazing! Big aroha to the team at Yalla Yalla Cafe for giving us a leg-up & helping make Home Kitchen a reality - now it's over to you!

Be part of the Story

We're asking you to show some aroha and join the Home Kitchen support crew by helping us achieve our PledgeMe goal - in return we promise amazing taste experiences brought to you by a diverse group of individuals with passion and culture to boot! So, go on, pick a reward and make our dreams come true!

Web: homekitchen.co.nz

F: @HomeKitchenNZ

I: /homekitchennz

Comments