Prepping a Place at the Table

In its ongoing mission to welcome our newest neighbors, Trinity is helping Hot Bread Kitchen prepare asylum seekers for a career in the city’s pro kitchens.  

When record numbers of asylum seekers began arriving in New York City on buses two years ago, nonprofits who were stepping up to provide support heard a common refrain. “Over and over, we’d hear, ‘I want to work,’” says Julianne Feder, senior brand manager at Hot Bread Kitchen, which for 16 years has worked to boost opportunity for women of color, women immigrants, and gender-expansive individuals.   

With the city emerging from the pandemic, the state identified a whopping 45,000 jobs open to immigrants with work authorization. But how to ready this new population of prospective employees—those traumatized by the journey, many with no English, no family support, and no housing? By the end of 2023, Hot Bread Kitchen had tailored its existing culinary fundamentals program to asylum seekers. And by the following spring and with $100,000 in funding from Trinity Church, the organization—which is housed at Chelsea Market but partners with a group of nonprofit kitchens across the city—had put out a call for students, screened and interviewed applicants, and invited its first cohort of 25 “members” into the industrial kitchen at City Harvest’s new headquarters in Sunset Park. 

Six weeks of intensive training later, the Culinary Career Pathways for New New Yorkers program had its first graduates. Twenty-two have already landed jobs: Brianna, who says the only thing more terrifying than the thought of coming to the U.S. was the prospect of staying in Honduras as a trans person, works at a large Brooklyn bakery. Eskarli, who fled Venezuela with her mom and kids after the government seized her restaurant, preps salads at Casa Cipriani. Others, like Maria, who escaped the gangs of Ecuador with her mom and kids after her husband died, are busy interviewing. And a fourth cohort is in training on the Lower East Side, at the Manny Cantor Community Center.  

Trinity, which has been distributing grants (including  $3.6 million in grants from Trinity Philanthropies so far) to address the humanitarian emergency since the fall of 2022, was quick to recognize the impact Hot Bread Kitchen could have. The church, too, was seeing the need for workforce training as the numbers seeking aid at their biweekly food pantry began to swell with asylum seekers. “We kept hearing people say they desperately wanted to work—safely and legally,” says Syed Ali, director of partnerships for Trinity Philanthropies. He explains that helping the new arrivals get work authorization was far from the only hurdle. “The question was, ‘How do they access jobs?’” says Ali. “Hot Bread Kitchen had the skill set and experience to start figuring out what could be done and serve as a model for others.”  

A typical day goes something like this: Students arrive at 1:45pm, using MetroCards the program provides. First up is a three-hour English language intensive, focused on the vocabulary of the kitchen. “We have five weeks to get them to a safe level of understanding, where they’re comfortable asking questions or getting clarification,” explains Sonam Choeden, Hot Bread Kitchen’s director of community and member engagement.  

By 5pm, members are at their stations. “We teach how to braise, roast, and do basic pastry production, but focus on knife skills — because with speed, accuracy, and nice, even cuts, they’ll be ready for any kitchen,” says Choeden. The first few weeks are taught mainly in Spanish, but anyone who’s watched The Bear will understand why members are calling out “Corner!,” “Sharp!,” or “Yes, Chef!” in English from day one. (“It’s a crucial baseline for working safely,” Choeden explains.) 

Our goal is to eliminate barriers that stand in the way of getting a job with a future."

Sonam Choedon

Throughout the day, members receive professional readiness lessons and learn about kitchen culture and conflict resolution. For Carlos, who makes scones at Colson Bakery in Brooklyn, that understanding has been crucial. “It’s a culture shock to step into an environment that’s so fast and pressured,” he says. “Reminding myself that patience is a virtue and that it’s my job to prep and keep my boss busy has been invaluable.”  

Hot Bread Kitchen’s program also advocates for self-care and mental health, including tips and exercises for managing stress and referrals to outside nonprofits well versed in managing trauma. “Our goal is to eliminate barriers that stand in the way of getting a job with a future,” says Choeden.  

To that end, members receive a weekly stipend of $160 and a dedicated caseworker, who will help them track down legal help, put childcare in place, or just buy whatever groceries they need. “We try to step into our members’ shoes, then scramble to connect them with whatever they need,” explains Leslie Abbey, HBK’s chief executive officer, who says they’ve built a vast network of partners and resources that will be invaluable as they move forward.   

By the time a member graduates, they will have created a résumé and participated in mock interviews. But their relationship with Hot Bread Kitchen doesn’t end there. A caseworker matches them to job openings — but not just at any restaurant. For years, HBK has cultivated more than 200 employer partners, running the gamut from Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group to Russ & Daughters Café.  

“Hiring used to be a constant source of stress,” says Natalie Abrams, executive chef at Colson Patisserie, a bakery in Industry City that supplies coffee shops and restaurants across the city with muffins, scones, and pastries. “Hot Bread Kitchen knows me and what I’m picky about, so I can count on the candidates they send.” For Brianna, who’d been unable to land a job (even armed with proper paperwork) for a full year before finding HBK, that matchmaking changed everything.  

“The week after finishing the program, I was working,” she says. What she got, though, was even more than a job. Today, Brianna can see the future she risked everything for. “I can keep learning, and doors are open to me now. I can live like a normal person.”