April Moments That Mattered As our previous edition noted, we proudly welcomed a new Operations Manager and Trainer! It has been just over a month since we welcomed Ismail Almatheab into this role, and we would like to report that he is getting well into the swing of things. April saw him begin to lead the Introduction to Hospitality course, an initiative aiming to build confidence in the kitchen and the practical skills of all participants. We are confident that the enthusiasm it has been approached will continue, and the programme will yield some great results. The demand for our catering services remained strong. We were honoured to provide food for the London Borough of Lewisham Easter Club, Sports Day at Katherine Low Settlement, and a Sudanese event at Plan International. At the latter, our team was overjoyed to receive commendations for their excellent service and authentic, flavourful food. Upcoming in May (and beyond!) Consistent with trends typical of May, the month is proving to be full of fairs. On the 9th of May, we will have a stall at the Sydenham Garden Spring Fayre, serving our usual staples and products. Following a successful Winter Fayre, we have little doubt that this event will go down a treat. We will also be present at Spitalfields City Farm, a venue familiar to readers, for their Summer Fayre on May 31st. For more information and to stay updated, keep a close eye out on our social media!
For founder Iolanda Chirico, food has always been about more than what is on the plate. Food creates community. Food represents support, family, and security. It is this belief that inspired Iolanda to launch Plateful Café, a charity that gives refugees the opportunity to build their lives through food. By providing training, employment opportunities and a welcoming community, Plateful Cafe helps people establish roots in the UK after being forced to flee their homes. “I’m a great believer in the power of food to bring people together and break down barriers. We all like to eat good food. When we eat together, we forget where we come from.” Plateful Café became a registered charity in 2023. Today, the charity delivers an eight-week Introduction to Hospitality programme, community dinners, catering services and pop-up events across London. Alongside practical hospitality training, participants gain confidence, improve their English language skills, build professional networks and gain the experience needed to secure employment. “Employment opens so many doors. If you’re stuck at home doing nothing, you feel rejected and alienated. We’re trying to provide opportunities so people can become active again, support themselves and make a contribution to society.” The impact of that work can be seen in the stories of the refugees Plateful Café supports. One recent participant, a refugee from Sudan, completed the charity’s training programme before securing two part-time roles, one as a cooking demonstrator and another as a cupcake decorator. She has also established her own catering business, Nubian Delights, creating bespoke cakes and catering for local events. More broadly, many of the refugees trained through Plateful Café have gone on to secure part-time and full-time employment in the hospitality sector. After completing the training programme, participants can continue working with Plateful Café as paid chefs, receiving the London Living Wage while catering events and building their experience. “It’s very important that people understand refugees are here because they were forced to flee persecution and war. All they want is the opportunity to rebuild their lives, support their families and make a contribution.” After becoming a charity, Plateful Café operated its own café for nine months before losing its venue. Determined to continue supporting refugees, the organisation spent months searching for a new home before securing a base at Blackfriars Settlement in central London earlier this year. The new space offered an exciting opportunity to restart and expand the charity’s work, but it also brought a new challenge. As part of the arrangement, Plateful Café was provided with a draft partnership agreement governing the use of the building and commercial kitchen space. As a growing charity without access to in-house legal expertise, Iolanda wanted reassurance that the agreement was fair, workable and protected the charity’s interests. Having previously received support through LawWorks in her work with other refugee charities, Iolanda knew exactly where to turn. “I’ve been using LawWorks for a number of years and the service has always been excellent, and this time was no different. The speed of the response was amazing. A law firm was found within days.” Through LawWorks’ Not-for-Profits Programme, Plateful Café was matched with pro bono solicitors at Milbank LLP, who reviewed the agreement and helped the charity move forward with confidence. The agreement was particularly important because the premises are shared with other organisations, making clarity around access to the space, use of the commercial kitchen and each party’s responsibilities essential. “I had never dealt with a partnership agreement before. I didn’t know what clauses should be included or how the document should be structured. The lawyers helped put everything together beautifully.” Securing the space has already transformed what Plateful Café is able to achieve. Shortly after moving into Blackfriars Settlement, the charity successfully secured funding to relaunch its training programme and expand its activities. Access to a free commercial kitchen in central London has provided a foundation for future growth and allowed the organisation to focus on supporting more refugees into employment. “Thank you, securing this space has opened so many doors for us.” This Refugee Week, LawWorks is proud to support charities like Plateful Café through our Not-for-Profits Programme. By connecting charities with free legal support, we help organisations focus on what they do best, changing lives and strengthening communities. There are many ways to support access to justice through LawWorks. By volunteering your time or making a donation, you can help charities like Plateful Café continue their vital work. LinekdIn- Opening doors through food: Plateful Café
This month’s edition builds on a strong March, highlighting increased catering demand, community engagement, and key partnerships, including events with The London Unit and the conclusion of the Migration on Film series with Goldsmiths. It celebrates continued outreach through local stalls and storytelling from Plateful’s chefs, showcasing the cultural depth behind their food. A major milestone is the appointment of Ismail Almatheab as the organisation’s first full-time Operations Manager and Trainer, marking a shift towards greater operational capacity and the upcoming launch of training programmes and a new café, signalling an important phase of sustainable growth.
This month’s newsletter reflects on a busy February of successful events, including a sold-out Sudanese Valentine’s dinner and continued catering at Goldsmiths’ Migration on Film series, alongside the ongoing Warm Space initiative at Blackfriars Settlement. Looking ahead, March brings culturally rich events such as a St. Patrick’s Day celebration at Lewisham Irish Centre and Plateful’s first Eid community dinner.
This month’s edition marks a major milestone as Plateful Café secures its first operational base at Blackfriars Settlement, enabling the launch of its Warm Space soup initiative and laying the groundwork for expanded training, catering, and café services from April. The newsletter highlights a growing events programme, including Migration on Film nights at Goldsmiths and a Valentine’s dinner at Hilly Fields Café, alongside the introduction of a new Syrian menu for 2026. It also reflects continued community impact, with new refugee volunteers joining from Mauritius and Ethiopia and an expanding volunteer network supporting the organisation’s next phase of growth.
This New Year edition reflects on a demanding but impactful 2025, featuring a candid end-of-year note from founder Iolanda Chirico on the ongoing challenge of operating without a permanent kitchen despite catering 50+ events across London. It celebrates the dedication of 48 volunteers across eight teams, shares strong customer testimonials, and looks ahead to January and February 2026 events including the Warm Space soup project at Blackfriars Settlement and a Sudanese Valentine’s dinner at Hilly Fields Café.
Plateful Cafe needs a home… As some of our readers may remember, Plateful Café was at Parkside from June 2023 to April 2024 – first as a hospitality training space for our refugees, and then as a vibrant community café serving a Syrian-inspired menu. For many of our chefs, Parkside was an extremely important space that allowed them to learn and develop crucial skills in the hospitality sector. When our café closed in April after an eight-month pilot, its loss was deeply felt by our team and the community, who had come to see it as a welcoming space to gather and share food. Since then, we’ve continued our mission through pop-ups and community dinners, but operating without a dedicated kitchen has brought real challenges. Preparing food off-site and transporting it to various venues limits the number of chefs we can train and employ, and makes it harder to grow our impact. Despite these obstacles, our commitment to creating opportunities for refugees remains unwavering, and our adaptability has led us to explore new income-generating ventures like catering and private dining experiences! Now, we’re determined to find a permanent home once again that can house our chefs, support our day-to-day operations, and serve as a true community hub. We’re currently in talks with potential partners, including Blackfriars Settlement and Appleby Blueand are definitely hopeful of what these partnerships can bring! Thank you for joining us on this journey! What’s been on October? September was definitely an eventful month! Some of our highlights include the pop-up stall at the Family Mini Festival in Catford and a three-course lunch at Spitafield Farm to celebrate the Power of Food Festival. Both were lovely events where we got to interact with the community. October, so far, has been full of flavour! We kicked off the month with a sold-out Syrian Feast at Hilly Fields Café – a beautiful evening of food, culture, and connection. Following its success, we’re thrilled to share that we plan to host regular dinners there in the future (more information to come soon!) On the 17th, we’ll be welcoming guests to our very first Sudanese meal, featuring live music from Lucie Coholt, who will be performing her latest single, and a menu that celebrates the rich, diverse flavours of Sudanese cuisine. If you missed out on the above, don’t worry! Our regular pop-ups at SET Social and our Wednesday residency at Hill Station Café continue into the second half of the month. Thank you to everyone who’s joined us and supported these gatherings! Want to bring Plateful Cafe to your kitchen? You may have noticed our chefs have been sharing their favourite recipes on Instagram lately – and what a treat this is! Most recently, we have shared Ghormeh Sabzi (Herb and Kidney bean stew), a traditional Persian recipe that is a bowl of warmth and flavour. If you love to try new and exciting flavours, this one is for you. For more recipes, follow our Instagram! Have a special event coming up? Choose Plateful for your next event and make a difference! We cater for any occasion from weddings to corporate events, our diverse menu offers global flavours, and includes three-course meals and delicious canapes. We would love to celebrate your special event with you! For enquiries, please click the link below. For more information please contact: [email protected]
The Christmas with Plateful Cafe! Dear Readers, As we reach the final chapter of the year, the Plateful Cafe team is filled with gratitude and festive excitement! With new experiences on the horizon for 2026, continued growth in our pop-ups and private catering, and more beneficiaries stepping into employment, there is so much to be hopeful for in the year to come. In this edition, you’ll find a round-up of what we’ll be offering in December, details of our upcoming plans for next year, and reflections on the impact your support has made. There’s plenty to unwrap. Happy reading, and warm wishes for a peaceful, joyful Christmas season! Thank you for an amazing year! 2025 has been a truly amazing year for Plateful Café, and we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who has supported, volunteered, eaten with us, or shared our mission. Together, we created 664 hours of paid work for refugees and delivered £7,328 in fair wages, ensuring that every dish served contributed directly to rebuilding lives. This growth also allowed us to welcome new talent into our kitchen, including chefs like Jafar Adam from Sudan, whose passion and skill have already made an incredible impact on our team. One of the biggest highlights of the year has been the rise of our private catering service. What began as a few small events has now blossomed into a thriving stream to Plateful Café, with bookings spanning from weddings to corporate gatherings. We’ve received countless generous reviews praising the menus we prepare, and the demand continues to grow. Your trust in us has turned private catering into one of our strongest pathways for creating sustainable work opportunities! Most importantly, we’ve seen our cooks’ confidence and careers flourish. This year, two more cooks moved into part-time employment thanks to the experience they gained with us. Sana now works three days a week as a cook in a local nursery, and Jafar has secured part-time work as a kitchen porter in a nearby restaurant. Their achievements fill us with immense pride! Thank you for continuing to support us! Click this link to read more Plateful Cafe wishes you a lovely Christmas period!
And end of year note from Iolanda Thank you for your support in what has been quite the rollercoaster year for Plateful Café. The biggest challenge ever remains the lack of a permanent venue. Despite an ever-increasing demand for our catering services, presence at pop ups and events, we continue to cook and deliver food from my house. In 2025 we have catered for over fifty events all over London, but predominantly in south-east. Quite often, we cook over three days for a single event due to a lack of storage and space to accommodate multiple cooks each time in a domestic kitchen. I am the shopper, cook, cleaner, driver, fundraiser, coordinator, networker, advocate and so many more roles that it would be impossible to list them all. It is exhausting! As a Founder I have a moral responsibility to keep going in the interest of others and to continue to make a difference in the locality and in the lives of so many people. I continue to believe that we can find ways to change the narrative on migration and rolling up her sleeves to make it happen. We have travelled so far but the journey continues to be so long and arduous on the road to finding our home. I continue to be privileged to work with a wonderful team of volunteers supporting all our efforts as we are still volunteer-run and refugee-led. It is not an understatement to say that the whole team has had to dig deep this year, with their trademark passion and commitment. Holding our mission in mind and navigating anti-migration sentiment in the UK has only made us more determined to realise our vision. As we look towards 2026, we remain driven by the belief that Britain’s story is richer, deeper, and more interconnected than the headlines suggest. A permanent Plateful Café will be a place where that full picture is visible, celebrated and understood. Being a place where everyone can feel that they belong is central to everything we do and the training which we hope to restart. ~ Iolanda Chirico Our Amazing Volunteers Before launching into some of the incredible things our volunteers had to say about the organisation, a quick acknowledgement of their dedication must first be made. With 48 volunteers spread across eight teams of various operations, Plateful Café truly embodies what it means to be volunteer-run. A big thank you to all of you – your efforts do not go unnoticed. “My decision to volunteer with Plateful stemmed from my awareness of the disadvantages and struggles of refugees and asylum-seekers in the UK. Plateful’s aim to reduce socio-economic and ethnic inequality resonates with me deeply.” Orla, Admin Volunteer “I love working with Plateful, working alongside the chefs and volunteers who have faced unimaginable challenges to reach and settle in the UK.” Anne, Plateful driver What Customers Had to Say 2025 was a year of great success for Plateful. It saw catering done for a myriad of events, leaving very fed and satisfied customers. The organisation aims to use the uniting force of food to diffuse its message, and below are some examples of just that. “I really liked the ethos of Plateful Café: supporting refugee chefs – and it turns out the food is absolutely fabulous too. It was great value for money for our cowork Christmas Party 2025: interesting, tasty and well presented too. Highly recommend!” Sarah Greene, Co-Founder Buro Cowork “Everyone had such a lovely time. Seriously, best Christmas party ever. The food was so good, the room was beautiful and the creativity worked perfectly. I’ve sent the Plateful shop website link round and we will definitely spread the word about how brilliant both your organisations are. Thank you, again, for giving us a really special evening” Anood Al-Samerai, CEO, Community Southwark Looking Ahead…. The year is starting in full swing, with us running the Warm Space at Blackfriars settlement. Starting from the 7th of January and continuing each Wednesday, we will be preparing soups from all around the world for sixty people. Jumping to February, our next dinner at Hilly Fields Café will be on 14th of the month to celebrate Valentine’s day. This will feature a Sudanese themed three course menu, with tickets going on sale soon! These are just snippets into the events Plateful holds, so be sure to regularly check both our Instagram and website to avoid missing out on any exciting updates. Once again, Happy New Year from us at Plateful! If you thought that 2025 was a brilliant year (which it of course was), just wait to see what we have in store for 2026…
