LA Restaurant Building Community For Refugees

Some of the chefs from Food from Afar; Photograph: Kyle Desean Johnson

I recently read an article in the Guardian about Food from Afar, a restaurant in Los Angeles that has a monthly rotating menu based on the home countries of the chefs. When I learned about it, I was so incredibly inspired. Here was a group of people trying to help build community and give people from all across the globe, refugees and otherwise, a safe space to get together and enjoy a meal with your people.

As a product of the Tiyya Foundation, its goal is to help support refugees in both the individual, work-related areas, and more broadly. Food from Afar helps train refugee chefs in commercial kitchens, “get headshots and professional bios done to develop their resumes and even have professional photos of their food taken.”

The kitchen helps the cooks who work there get experience and future jobs down the line, and at the same time helps the greater Los Angeles community to learn more about new cultures and foods.

I’m so proud to have a restaurant like Food from Afar in my city, it tells me that there are other people who want to help create community for and support refugees in their passions and hopes for the future. I’m definitely going to be visiting Food from Afar soon. If you are in Los Angeles, check it out.