Welcome Neighbor STL’s Supper Club is transforming the lives of refugees

 In Press
FEAST

Feast Magazine
Charlotte Renner | Mar 3, 2024

When Ayman Almalla and Ghaida Al Masrabi immigrated to St. Louis in 2016, they were thrust into an unfamiliar world without any of the comforts of home.

“The summer we came here, we didn’t know anyone; no friends, no language … we left our families,” Almalla says. “That makes it so hard.”

Their situation is similar to that of many refugees, and it’s one that local nonprofit Welcome Neighbor STL wants to help reconcile through its Supper Club program.

Hailing from Afghanistan and Syria to Morocco and India, the Supper Club’s refugee chefs cook the food of their home countries at regular dinners, events, festivals, cooking classes and drive-thru meal pickup events. The program empowers refugees by providing them with financially stable jobs and the means to share their culture with their new communities. It’s also a way for refugees to link back to the culture they left behind.

“I love food – I love cooking,” one of the refugee chefs, Mawda Altayan, says. “I learned cooking from my mom and my grandmother. I’ve always loved to cook and share food with my friends, and I love this job because it’s like part of my personality.”

Welcome Neighbor STL’s Supper Club is transforming the lives of refugees
Supper Club chefs and Wafa Foods LLC owners Ghaida Al Masrabi and Ayman Almalla.
Recommended Posts

Start typing and press Enter to search

Catholics continue to rally around Afghan refugee families in St. Louis'They give me the support and the power to stand up and start from zero' | Meet Chef Mawda Altayan