Snip, cook and eat. And ideally this turns into friendship. This is the recipe for how people with refugee experience can integrate. A group is also active in Würzburg.
?? Every cooking evening is living proof that the cooperation works. And you are always inspired by new dishes. For cooking like us humans: Diversity is an asset! ?? says Jan Kroner from Würzburg ?? Outside the box ?? team. The name of the association says it all, the concept is actually very simple, but very promising: just cook and eat together and thus take a big step towards integration, by not just pushing your own shoulders, but really thinking outside the box look at the other. Of course, not only from a culinary point of view, but also by getting to know each other from different regions of the world personally.
The first two years we mainly cooked with people from Syria and locals. Today, both our team and our participants are very multicultural, ”says Kroner. The team meanwhile included people with Syrian, Indonesian or Filipino roots, for example. At the meetings, dishes from many cultures, which would normally be introduced by a person from the respective culture, were brewing on the stove from Syria, Mexico, Turkey, Russia, Spain, the Philippines, Venezuela, Somalia, Iran, Guinea, Greece. The team of about 20 people holds a cooking event every month, which is intended to meet people with and without experience of escape from different backgrounds. There is also a Schnippelparty once a month. Kroner explains that it processes foods that are normally thrown away by supermarkets or restaurants. The association wants to ensure more sustainability.
Cooking is done in the MS Satisfaction in the Old Port in Würzburg. On average, there are 25 people. “We have always limited the number of registrations to less than 30, otherwise the MS satisfaction kitchen would be too full,” said Kroner. In times of restrictions due to the regulations in the context of the corona pandemic, the club needs imagination, because standing close to the stove, snipping, trying, eating in large, randomly mixed groups is not yet possible.
Recently, some people ate at home, but they were digitally connected through the Zoom platform and proved that the motto of the association is “Cooking connects”. also works at a distance. Discussions also came about and a few participants decided to hike together in Franconian Switzerland. Whether hiking or dancing: The association is always open to new formats and only needs committed people who help with the implementation. ?? Feel free to come to us with your own ideas ??, advertises ?? Outside the box ?? on Facebook. If you want to do this, you can contact the organization team via the website ueberdentellerrand.org. And so that despite the pandemic, not everything is digital, Jan Kroner and his club colleagues also plan real meetings. “We hope that an open-air picnic with sufficient clearance and security measures will be possible in the near future,” said Kroner. As soon as the normal conditions are restored, the MS satisfaction is cut and boiled again.
Was founded ?? Outside the box ?? Würzburg 2016 as an offshoot of the organization of the same name in Berlin. “A few of the original founders regularly held private cooking evenings and were looking for a way to help people with refugee experience,” Kroner says. They discovered the association in Berlin. At the same time, another woman from Würzburg tried to found a satellite of the Berlin organization in the city. The women got in touch and off we went. The MS satisfaction supported the project and made the rooms available free of charge. Since 2013, I’ve been thinking outside the box in Berlin that integration and social participation of people with refugee experience succeed in our society ??, says the website of the parent organization. We create spaces that enable encounters and exchanges to be made on an equal footing and promote friendships between people with and without experience of escape.
The aim is to reduce prejudices on both sides in diverse encounter activities, promote openness and respect, and pass on language skills and cultural knowledge. “In culinary, creative and sporting activities people from different backgrounds meet, get to know each other and make friends”, so the conviction. The organization now has branches in 40 cities in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Colombia. “I am thrilled to see at every cooking event the joy and passion with which the participants come together to cook,” says Jan Kroner in Würzburg.
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