Sanctuary Kitchen: Sharing Cuisine & Culture

Profile by Caryn B. Davis Images Courtesy of Sanctuary Kitchen

“There’s something very intimate about cooking together, and anybody who tastes their food, who cooks with them, who sits with them, can really feel that love, and the barriers just fall away even when you come from very different backgrounds. You find as you get to know each other, everybody’s dreams and wishes are very similar. Everybody wants safety and security. Everybody wants to be able to provide for their family, educate their children, and live in a peaceful, safe environment so they can thrive. The chefs are so eager to be able to share and contribute and to do their part in building community, ”

Azhar Ahmed was forced to leave her homeland in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan after a series of political conflicts had erupted resulting in countless casualties with thousands of people becoming displaced. She sought refuge with her husband and two small children in Cairo, Egypt, where Ahmed earned a bachelor’s degree in law and also took courses to teach Arabic, first aid, religion, and sociology. In 2015, Ahmed and her family relocated again, this time to Connecticut.

Ahmed’s story is not unlike other refugees, especially in war-torn countries and those with political unrest. Many have witnessed gruesome violence and have endured horrific atrocities such as torture, false arrests, kidnapping, beatings, and even the death of loved ones.

Life in a new country is also fraught with its own set of challenges, though not as severe. As refugees, they must start all over again which can include learning a new language, finding safe and affordable housing, and most importantly, a means with which to make a living. Often, the educational degrees or formal training they have worked so hard to receive in other nations do not carry the same merit here, so they are left with few options other than to seek work wherever they can get it. Ahmed was fortunate because she had learned how to cook from her mother and was able to capitalize on that skill with help from Sanctuary Kitchen, which partners with refugees and immigrants to build economic opportunity and authentic connections through food.

Formed in 2017, Sanctuary Kitchen is a program of New Haven’s CitySeed, (a non-profit organization that brings fresh food to urban and underserved communities). Sanctuary Kitchen offers several training, business, and cultural exchange opportunities and programs, all food related. The majority of their participants are usually women, as the men are able to secure jobs more easily and often have more employment opportunities. Sanctuary Kitchen’s mission is to help these women start their own food related businesses or find work on food trucks, in restaurants, at farmer’s markets, in catering, or by creating and selling their own food product line or working as a chef. The cohorts for the program are recruited via word of mouth, through local chefs, and through a partnership Sanctuary Kitchen has with IRIS (Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services), an organization that welcomes new refugees and immigrants to New Haven.

“Most are just really experienced home cooks, and their food is delicious, so they don’t need to be taught how to cook. A few have worked professionally back home, but most have not,” says Sumiya Khan, Sanctuary Kitchen’s Program Director and co-founder. “So, what our catering manager and culinary coordinator, Carol Byer-Alcorace does, is teach them how to take those skills and apply it to a professional kitchen environment. It’s cooking for a food business, recipe writing, scaling recipes, doing inventory, determining cost; basically, working in a professional space, and all that entails.”

The program is yearlong, and in addition to culinary training and the job readiness module which includes digital literacy, resume building, and interview preparation, the cohorts receive English language lessons specific to food and cooking. Donna Golden, a certified ESL instructor and one of Sanctuary Kitchen’s co-founders, created this new curriculum which is unique in the country.

“Most of the chefs have already done basic ESL through IRIS, community colleges, or adult education so this one is focused on food and cooking vocabulary, recipes, measurements, things like that. Basically, it’s the tools they will need to be able to do their job efficiently in the kitchen,” says Khan.

After the cohorts graduate, they are able to find work in various capacities sometimes with help from Sanctuary Kitchen which has partnerships with chefs and businesses across New Haven. Others, who have been with Sanctuary Kitchen a while, can seek leadership roles and become future mentors and trainers within the program. Still others, who want to pursue their own businesses like starting a food truck, opening a catering company, or producing a food product line, can apply to CitySeed’s Food Business Accelerator program which helps support new ventures in the early stages. They do this through workshops in leadership, entrepreneurship, wholesale and local procurement, and in legal and regulatory requirements. They also provide seed funding, one-on-one coaching, the use of a free licensed commercial kitchen space, and opportunities to pitch investors and product test at a CitySeed farmer’s market. Lastly, they learn the proper way to handle, prepare, and serve food through SafeServe, a training and certification program. Ahmed now works with Sanctuary Kitchen as an employee and has taken on more leadership responsibilities in the kitchen. She also started her own project called Kumi’s Dream, inspired by her late father, Kumi, where she cooks meals twice monthly for the homeless in New Haven.

“In my culture when you see somebody who’s passed away in your dream, it’s a sign to feed the hungry,” says Ahmed who received her U.S. citizenship this past May.

In addition to these programs, Sanctuary Kitchen hosts cooking classes, supper club meals, and other culinary experiences led by immigrants and refugees from Syria, Sudan, Columbia, Mexico, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Ecuador, Ghana, the Dominican Republic, and Afghanistan, people who are excited to share their cuisine and their culture. Past events have included a Sudanese Breakfast Class, an Afghan Cooking Demo, Soup & Salaam: Creating Community Over Ghanaian Soup and Conversation, Learning to Make Fatayer- Iraqi Stuffed Savory Pastries, a Syrian Dessert Class, Learning to Make Sudanese Sambusas and Smoked Tea, and more. It’s an opportunity for the public to meet the chefs, learn about their lives and their cultures, and to hear their stories. Pre-covid, every month a different chef was featured along with a traditional soup, salad, and grain from their native country. All the proceeds earned from the ticketed events are used to pay the chefs and cover the costs of materials and kitchen space.

Cooking is universal, and in the case of these immigrants and refugees who may not yet have a great command of the English language, it can also be a pathway to self-expression and connection. “There’s something very intimate about cooking together, and anybody who tastes their food, who cooks with them, who sits with them, can really feel that love, and the barriers just fall away even when you come from very different backgrounds. You find as you get to know each other, everybody’s dreams and wishes are very similar. Everybody wants safety and security. Everybody wants to be able to provide for their family, educate their children, and live in a peaceful, safe environment so they can thrive. The chefs are so eager to be able to share and contribute and to do their part in building community,” Khan says.

For more information, log onto https.//www.sanctuarykitchen.org