Empowering people to build new lives takes a network of support. Yet for many refugee families, additional challenges remain, such as supporting family members back home or finding affordable child care. These challenges can't be solved by a single, isolated solution, but the compensation the students receive through the apprenticeship, at $15 per hour, is one targeted and essential measure, as it establishes an earning background and entitles participants to benefits like unemployment. There is an accumulation of challenges and traumas each refugee faces that can make the journey to leave their country of origin just as difficult and dangerous as living in it. If the proof of the pudding is in the eating, then one can enjoy the impact of Emma’s Torch’s recipe to the taste of 96% of job-seeking graduates gaining employment, and plans to expand the program well underway. While the culinary industry itself has been undergoing a reckoning around what steps need to be taken to safeguard equity, fairness, and inclusion, Emma’s Torch aims to partner specifically with restaurants and industry leaders who provide mentorship and promote positive workspaces. In New York State, the restaurant industry accounts for about 20% of the state’s total job growth, making the industry a promising one for refugees seeking employment. CULINARY FUNDAMENTALS DAY 13 PROFESSIONALThe Culinary Training Program positions its students for success not just by fostering professional skills, but also in targeting such a critical industry in New York. The result is an arrangement of flavors that perfectly harmonizes with the choreography of a busy kitchen - one of Brodie’s favorite sights at Emma’s Torch. When asked if students use that graduation dinner to showcase a classic meal from their home country, Brodie explained that students more often choose something more surprising, like giving a familiar American dish a culturally inspired twist or fusing two spice blends into something entirely new. If the evening’s dinner is an exam, then its only instructions are “cook what you know, cook what you love, cook what feeds your soul.” That creativity is unleashed at the students’ graduation dinner, a kind of capstone evening where the menu is entirely designed and prepared by the soon-to-be alumni. “We balance skills and fundamentals so that when our students walk out our doors, we know they can get a job, but we also want to foster confidence and creativity so they realize that the knowledge they bring with them matters,” said Brodie. There’s cooking, too, of course, and the meals on the teaching menu are curated by the culinary director, Chef Alexander Harris, to exercise students’ curiosity and build a repertoire of cooking skills to master.Ī post shared by Emma's Torch menu is a jumping-off point for conversations around sustainable sourcing of ingredients and supporting local producers. Through the Emma’s Torch Culinary Training Program, students are taught food industry core competencies, like knife skills, and develop broader professional skills, such as resume writing and tech literacy. “It’s not just the crisis you’re fleeing, not just the intermediary steps, not just arrival here.” “The refugee experience is not one single moment,” Kerry Brodie, founder and executive director of Emma’s Torch, told Global Citizen. While some may have never worked outside the home before, or others worked in entirely different industries, each student is committed to building lives, for themselves and their families, that are independent, dignified, and fulfilling. In the five years since the program's inception, Emma’s Torch has trained more than 150 students, many of whom come from West Africa or Central America and, more recently, from Afghanistan and Ukraine.Įach student has their own story and unique circumstances that brought them to the US. The apprenticeship is open to people who have recently arrived to the US as refugees, asylum seekers, or survivors of trafficking.
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