Emma's Torch
A beacon of light for refugees in Brooklyn is forging a way forwards through culinary education.
What is it: A not-for-profit Brooklyn restaurant and culinary school offering paid training and job placement for refugees, people granted asylum, and survivors of human trafficking.
What you need to know: Founded by Kerry Brodie in 2016 after she completely shifted her career focus from public policy — she previously worked at the Human Rights Campaign and has a Masters degree in government from John Hopkins University — to the restaurant industry, completing her studies at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York.
The impetus for this shift and the inspiration for Emma’s Torch: the possibility of food to do more than nourish, an idea that came to Brodie while she was volunteering in a Washington homeless shelter. Food can connect disparate people, bringing them together around the table, while the cultures that shape our understanding of food remain foundational no matter where people find themselves. But Brodie also saw a way to solve the difficulty that restaurants had of hiring line cooks in New York and the struggles of people newly arrived in the US to find employment.
Brodie now works with refugee resettlement agencies, homeless shelters, and social service providers to identify candidates for Emma’s Torch’s signature 10-week training program for refugees that covers everything from knife skills to job readiness. After graduation, Emma’s Torch has placed 97% of job-seeking graduates and as many as 100 trainees have secured permanent employment in the restaurant industry since it was founded.
With the COVID pandemic and the devastating impacts on the hospitality industry, Brodie has pivoted to a new partnership, becoming a Rethink Food certified organization with the aim of reducing food insecurity by donating 600 meals a week to the Nutrition Kitchen Food Pantry.
What they offer online and off: During pandemic closures, take a virtual cooking class, buy pantry provisions made by students and partners – there’s also own-brand goods such as Hawij Hot Cocoa Mix – or order pick-up and delivery. Donate to secure the future of this organization, if you are able.
Why we think it matters: Emma’s Torch has at its heart a belief that refugees can be welcomed into their new home country. Its name is taken from the poet Emma Lazurus, whose famous line is etched into the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”. But this historical precedent stands in contrast with present-day experiences of xenophobia and prejudice around refugees, the difficulties displaced people have of finding employment or housing, and the fatigue and barriers that come with negotiating an ever-evolving political context that often characterizes them as a burden. But Emma’s Torch builds on the positive impacts of NYC’s large population of refugees, their contribution to the local economy, particularly in the borough of Brooklyn where it is located. As Brodie has said: "We engage in this work not simply because our students are people less advantaged than ourselves; we do this because, as Americans, we believe that when we are at our best, this is how we behave, simply because it’s the right thing to do. There is no ‘us’ and ‘them’, but if there was, I would argue that ‘they’ make ‘us’ stronger and better. What our students bring to the table has value, and we are fortunate to be able to work with them to ensure that they are welcomed by their new community."
In their own words: “We find comfort in the diversity in our classrooms and kitchens. Refugees, asylees, and survivors of human trafficking from over 35 countries have passed through our kitchen. Not only has this pushed us to be more sensitive and aware of culinary traditions from across the world, but it also reaffirms that there is so much binding us all together. Our menu reminds us of this common ground, and draws from both our students’ cultures and our team’s culinary upbringing. As we grow, we hope our menu continues to not only be a learning tool for our students, but also a unique conversation between the almost 100 students and graduates who now have a home at Emma’s Torch.”
We’re inspired to: As the hospitality industry is severely impacted by the consequences of the pandemic, support your local restaurants if you are able and you’ll be supporting the jobs that they provide. Whether that’s a burger night that your local café has pivoted to, a finish-at-home delivery box, or eating in the cold outside, find ways to support the independents so they, and the people they in turn support, can get through this time. As Emma’s Torch can attest, what you eat goes beyond food.
To find out more: Website / Instagram / Facebook
Additionally, try: Social Bite / Brigade Bar + Kitchen / Luminary Bakery
Choose Love
This holiday season support pop-up stores Choose Love by gifting everyday items to refugees who urgently need them.
“‘The world’s first store that sells real products for refugees.’”
Holiday Fatigue. Compassion Fatigue. Everyday life fatigue.
At this time of year, as the days get darker and our schedules more frantic, many of us find ourselves exhausted, overwhelmed, maybe also panicked. We’re under pressure to consume, to shop, to scramble for all the things that we don’t need and that we probably won’t even remember in January. Some of us are starting to realize that we don’t love this Black Friday to January Sales treadmill, that it benefits someone’s bottom line but not us. We’re starting to look for ways to do the holidays differently.
Like Choose Love. No, that is not just a cute Instagrammable aphorism (though it does take a covetable merchandise form). It is an urgently needed pop-up that takes that holiday spending money and uses it for good, not seasonally appropriate greed. The Choose Love stores brought to us by Glimpse design collective—there are now 3, in London, New York, and Los Angeles—only sell things that refugees vitally need that you get to gift to them. The stores are arranged by the different stages and shifting requirements of displaced people. There’s ‘Arrival’, ‘Shelter’, and ‘Future’. A life jacket. Children’s boots. A hot shower. Safe spaces for women. A Bundle of Warmth. Think about these things for a second. Think about how and why they are needed. We defy your heart not to break just a little.
As CEO of Help Refugees (the NGO behind Choose Love), Josie Noughton sums it up: "It's easy to forget how lucky we are to have a bed, a blanket and a roof over our heads. For thousands of refugees this winter, these basic human needs are completely out of reach. This shop is all about one simple idea: that we should all Choose Love and help those in need."
Choose Love stores fill that compassion gap between the moment that we’re shocked by the news and the horrors that refugees fleeing climate change, war and persecution face, and the moment that we don’t know what to feel and what to do about it. By holding everyday items in our hands that people need, it returns essential humanity to the stories that we’ve become numb to and the headlines that we learn to forget. Simple things like baby items, clean and safe water, a bag of school supplies, restore the idea that these are real people, not just statistics, who need our help and deserve our kindness.
Though these brightly colored stores feel like a boutique gift shop, they are designed for you to leave with nothing except the knowledge that whatever it is you purchased is now finding its way to one of 120+ partners who support displaced people. You may be empty-handed, but you’ll definitely feel big-hearted. This is gift-giving as its best: we now know that doing something for someone else has a more lasting impact than doing something just for yourself. And beyond the 40,000 customers that it has to date served, Choose Love has a significant impact on the recipient too.
Since Choose Love launched in 2017, these pop-ups with a purpose have sent 1.5 million items to refugees, assisted one million displaced people in Europe, the Middle East, and the US-Mexico border, and raised 3 million pounds. Those statistics are staggering, particularly when you think that Choose Love is a relatively new concept on our High Streets. As brick-and-mortar retail is supposedly dying, they indicate a way forward for how our stores can change the world. Needs on both sides are now being met through something we’re overly familiar with, shopping and a place that has lost its own way, our High Streets.
Choosing Love matters; at a time when we’re divided across borders and beliefs, this simple mantra, and the enterprise behind it reminds us that we have options. We can choose to help people who really need it with our purchases this holiday season. And if you need any more encouragement, let’s give Banksy the last say: “For the person who has everything, buy something for someone who has nothing.’
(Also to look out for: You can also shop Choose Love for a Holiday gift – the recipient will receive a downloadable gift card with details of your item. Also, as these stores are staffed entirely by volunteers – you can gift your time.)
