Food is an excellent medium for promoting cultural exchange and allowing people to discover foreign traditions. Refoodgees aims to help cooks (with or without previous professional experience) integrate into Belgium’s labour market and social life by sharing their own culinary traditions. Securing official recognition of existing skills and qualifications is often difficult for refugees in their new host countries, so this focus on food can be a good starting point for labour market engagement.

Image source: Refoodgees, 2022.

Newcomers and refugees seeking to work professionally in the catering sector; Brussels locals seeking a quality restaurant experience at affordable prices and able to interact positively with refugee newcomers; the wider local community as participant refugees become better integrated through the initiative.

Image source: Refoodgees, 2022.

Working with Refoodgees provides participants with professional training in the Belgian hotel and catering industry, and allows them to build a professional network. The key focus of the project is the concept of sharing: those involved share experiences, techniques, products, history, and recipes, and build on this mutual exchange to move forwards and grow together. 

The first Refoodgees restaurant, located in the centre of Brussels, Belgium, was open for four months between 2021 and 2022. It formed part of an incubator for hospitality projects run by Hub.Brussels, which provided the Refoodgees team with fully equipped premises and professional coaching. Refoodgees works in conjunction with other local integration associations such as Via, which refer potential candidates to the restaurant.

After the first restaurant phase proved successful, Refoodgees is now working to establish its first permanent social and professional restaurant in Brussels. This version of the project will allow the hiring of a larger team: 12 new workers will be trained each year (6 as cooks; 6 as waiters) and upon completion of their time at Refoodgees will receive support in finding rewarding employment elsewhere, or in opening their own business.

Refoodgees offers a rewarding professional experience for refugees and newcomers, with the opportunity to build new professional and social networks, to have their existing skills valued, and to develop new skills. The restaurant in Brussels produced multicultural, delicious food at democratic prices.

For the duration of the first edition of Refoodgees in Brussels, the team was able to offer 8 different menus, and to serve 2 000 clients. Former participant Abdulrahman, who has secured refugee status in Belgium and worked as a cook in the first edition of Refoodgees, will now go on to train as sous-chef for 6 months in order to be offered a permanent position in the new, permanent Refoodgees restaurant.

Image source: Refoodgees, 2022.

Above all, the 4-month trial period with the first restaurant proved that Refoodgees is a sustainable social project.

Refoodgees has so far benefited from the support of Hub.Brussels as well as grants from OpenSoon (Région Bruxelles Capitale) and Village Finances, both initiatives that support new businesses. Until now the largest proportion of funding has come in the form of private loans.

Additionally, the initiative is currently running a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for the purchase of the necessary tools and furniture for the new, permanent restaurant.