Free to Feed

free to is a social enterprise based in Thornbury, Melbourne and we're the founders of the free to feed project.

free to feed is a pop up cooking school run by refugees and asylum seekers. The project provides opportunities for asylum seekers and refugees from around the world, to run cooking and storytelling gatherings, for all Australians.

Our instructors have exceptional cooking skills and, before fleeing, played important roles in their home countries (Iran, Pakistan, Kenya and Sri Lanka) serving traditional dishes, as professionals and/or as feeders of their families and communities. Now, as asylum seekers in Australia, without any formal qualifications and work experience, and facing a range of barriers including isolation, finding employment can be very challenging.

Gatherings are empowering and enriching experiences in which we get the opportunity to connect in an intimate setting with some of our most vulnerable, newly arrived community members.

For most of our instructors, free to feed will be their very first job in Australia!

free to feed provides training and mentoring from some of Melbourne’s finest chefs, cooking instructors and public speakers to help instructors transform their existing know-how into the skills needed to meet the significant demands of running dynamic cooking and storytelling gathering to all Australians.

Learn more about our cooking classes at www.freetomelbourne.org/cooking-classes