Migrateful is an award-winning charity whose mission is to empower and celebrate refugees and vulnerable migrants on their journey to integration, by supporting them to run their own cookery classes.

Launched in 2017 by Jess Thompson, Migrateful was originally born out of discussions with refugee women who were unemployed due to language barriers and the fact that their qualifications were not recognised in the UK. The main skill most of them had in common was cooking, so the aim of Migrateful when it first started was to get these women into employment by sharing their cooking skills with the world.

Fast forward to today and Migrateful is now supporting over 45 refugees and migrants on their journey to becoming successful chefs. Throughout their training each chef will be supported in their wellbeing and integration through a fantastic social network to build connections, improved communication skills in the English language, tools to support their leadership skills and confidence as well as opportunities to celebrate and share their culture. Through these classes the aim is also to educate the public on issues faced by migrants, reduce prejudice and challenge stereotypes.

They’ve gone strength to strength throughout the years and are now able to offer a multitude of different cookery classes for the public in London, Bristol, Brighton and Kent as well as private classes, online classes and even event catering!

ORCA has committed to working with Migrateful for the next year to assist their chefs in creating personal brands for new businesses they are setting up to work in after the programme. We will work closely with each chef to understand their needs, what their business is all about and help them to tell their story through their branding.

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“Our programme helps our chefs to build their confidence and leadership skills. Through  developing and teaching cookery classes with Migrateful, many of our chefs start thinking about starting their own food businesses. ORCA are the perfect partner to help our chefs on the next stage of their journey to success and independence. We are very grateful to work with a like-minded organisation that share our values and work ethic.” Omar Abourgebah, Head of Chef Development at Migrateful

“We’ve always lived by our values here at ORCA and for the last 5 years have offered up a percentage of our time to worthwhile pro bono projects each quarter. However, this year, we’ve decided to do things a little differently. Rather than spread our time over 4 separate projects throughout the year, we’ve decided to dedicate the full financial year to one worthwhile charity, so we can maximise our impact and support for them. This is the perfect partnership for ORCA as we’re huge advocates for supporting others and shifting the narrative associated with refugees and asylum seekers, which Migrateful is doing so well.” James Ewin, Founder of ORCA.

We have already been getting to know some of the chefs working with Migrateful and are proud to soon be able to share what we’ve worked on together.

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