Staff from across King’s College are invited to sign up to online cookery classes to support the charity Migrateful that, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, needs to raise over £40,000 to survive. The Arts & Humanities Research Institute (AHRI) is supporting places for up to 60 staff across four cookery classes, one class every Thursday evening in May. Places usually cost £20 per person and whilst these costs will be covered, participants can also donate money themselves if they so choose.

Migrateful’s mission is to empower and celebrate refugees and vulnerable migrants on their journey to integration, by supporting them to run their own cookery classes. The classes provide ideal conditions not just for learning English and building confidence but also, for promoting contact and cultural exchange with the wider community. Due to the pandemic, Migrateful has had to cancel over 60 cookery classes so their need for support is urgent.

Each online cookery class will run for two hours. The first 75 minutes will involve welcomes and the cooking itself. Most chefs will aim to teach vegetarian recipes and will try to make recipes as accessible as possible in terms of ingredients you will likely have at home; participants will be sent a list of ingredients a few days in advance. During the class, there will be ample opportunity to ask the Chef questions and to find out more about the international cuisine.

For the remaining 45 minutes, participants will enjoy their meals alongside informal chat and networking in breakout rooms. Points of discussion will focus on cross-cutting issues related to migration convened by leading migration researchers from across King’s College including Dr Sarah Fine (Department of Philosophy), Professor Anna Reading (Department of Culture, Media & Creative Industries) and Dr Leonie Ansems de Vries (Department of War Studies and Chair of the Migration Research Group). Artists who have been involved in migration research projects will also be on hand to add to conversations.

The idea for this opportunity arose from discussions between friends Dr Ammar Azzouz and Dr Ed Stevens, Manager of the AHRI, who were keen to leverage their respective organisations to support a charity at this time. Ammar works for Arup, an international design and engineering organisation, and so a selection of Arup staff will also be joining the classes.

Dates and times for the classes are below, and bookings are now open on a first come, first served basis. Please note to ensure as many people get the opportunity to take part as possible, you can only sign up for a maximum of one session. 

• 6 – 8pm, Thursday 7^th May: Pakistani cuisine (Dhal & Paratha) with Chef Noor
• 7 – 9pm, Thursday 14^th May: Syrian cuisine with Chef Majeda
• 6 – 8pm, Thursday 21^st May: Lebanese cuisine with Chef Ahmed
• 6 – 8pm, Thursday 28^th May: Sri Lankan cuisine with Chef Nafa

To register for this event please go to the Eventbrite page.

If you are unable to attend a class but would still like to donate to support Migrateful’s work, you can do so on their JustGiving page.

If you have any questions about this opportunity, please email the AHRI at ahri@kcl.ac.uk