PRESS
2021
THE DESIGN FILES
“In late 2020, we hit the streets in search for our new home, we were looking for a new kitchen to house our evolving catering offering and our new Commercial Cooking Training and Employment Program when we came across a run down space that had lived many former lives (as a motor car garage, nightclub and barbecue retailer…) It was dark and dank and kind of falling apart but it had some fundamentals that we were very curious about. An almost-ready commercial kitchen, high-ceilings, original timber beams, terrazzo tiled floors as well as big windows that opened and were hinting at the wonderful afternoon light that could pour through.”
SBS
”In Iraq in the '90s, all the kids in our neighbourhood would spend the afternoon outside playing different games together. They'd chase each other, ride bikes and play hide and seek, but there was always one little girl collecting leaves and stuffing them with rocks, pretending she was making a 'dolma dish'. This little girl was me. I also played with toys, but they were toy pans, pots and plates. I used to love playing with my older sister, imagining she was the guest and I was a chef cooking for her.”
BROADSHEET
"Never tried Iraqi or Colombian food? Now’s your chance. The Free to Feed cooking classes involve live, in-person experiences with instructors from a range of diverse backgrounds. Rawan from Baghdad is teaching vegetarian Iraqi cuisine, Salma from Tripoli will guide you through Lebanese cooking and Verena shares the ins and outs of food from Colombia, alongside other instructors hailing from Iran and Syria. Get to know them as they take take you on a three-hour immersive journey of sound, smell, taste, and storytelling.”
WESTPAC
”We came up with the idea for Free to Feed when we were living in The Hague. I’d had a job there in a big humanitarian-based organisation that was frustrating me because I wasn’t having a direct impact on the refugee communities I was trying to help. Plus, we had a newborn, and my hours were intense and inflexible. Daniel, being naturally entrepreneurial, said: “Well, why do you have to work for someone else? Why not do your own thing?” Slowly, he convinced me that it wasn't such a ridiculous idea.”
GOOD FOOD
”Now it has upped the feelgood factor – and facilities – even further with the opening of its stunning events space in Queens Parade, Fitzroy North. The heritage-listed modernist building, most recently known as The Que Club, has been transformed into an impressive light and airy 800-square-metre venue. With a large bar and events space, fully kitted-out catering kitchen and "living room" for sit-down dining, it's perfectly set up for cooking classes, workshops, fully catered events and celebrations.”
SBS
”Nige Sithirasegaram learnt how to cook while in Australia's detention centres. Now he's sharing his culinary education with the community. Nige Sithirasegaram learnt how to cook during his six years in Australia's detention centres. Now, the third-generation Sri Lankan fisherman shows you to recreate his dishes in your own home. "When I was a kid, I asked my mum a lot of questions about food."
MFWF MOTHER’S DAY IDEAS
“Learn to cook Colombian, Iraqi or Lebanese dishes with a class at Free to Feed. What gift is better than the gift of education? The gift of education followed by food. Book Mum into one of Free to Feed’s incredible roster of classes and reap the benefits for years to come. They’re taught by an incredible selection of cooks; browse the selection and book now - places fill up quickly.”
BROADSHEET
“Gift mum the experience of putting together floral bouquets and baking sweet baklava, all while helping asylum seekers and refugees: For Mother’s Day, it’s hosting a special cooking experience to celebrate mothers and motherly figures alike. Join Free to Feed’s resident florist Safia and cook-in-residence Zina as they team up to teach the arts of floral arrangement and baklava baking. Tickets include light mezze and tea, plus a bouquet of posies and baklava to take home.”
ABC EVERYDAY
”Zina Zahra, a cooking instructor in Melbourne's inner north, uses chilli both at home and when she teaches her Syriac and Iraqi cooking classes. If you've ended up with a surplus of chilli, Zina suggests making your own dried and crushed chillies. "I buy them in bulk and traditionally I use a thread and needle, and poke the chillies and hang them outside in the sun to dry for a few weeks.”
2020
THE GUARDIAN
”My belly is laughing when I try some curry,” says Nigethan ‘Nige’ Sithirasegaram into one of the three cameras pointed at him. “Even the smell makes me happy.” It’s a gloomy Melbourne morning but Sithirasegaram is positively beaming. Perched in front of a bright yellow backdrop at Free to Feed – a social enterprise and cooking school in Northcote – he’s telling stories for the suite of short films that will accompany a meal kit he’s releasing nationally on 17 November.”
THE SWEATLIFE
”Mirna is incredibly grateful for her new life in Australia, especially that she has been able to experience multiculturalism, having lived her whole life in Syria where there is only one predominant culture, this has been especially eye opening for Mirna and her family. Yet Mirna acknowledges assimilation hasn’t always been easy. “Newly arrived to Australia, I faced many challenges. One of them was the language barrier as we spoke Arabic in my country, therefore I couldn’t feel a sense of belonging, I wasn’t able to participate in the community,” Mirna shared.”
THE BIG ISSUE
”Mahshid was a writer in her home country of Iran. Late last year she penned a beautiful piece for The Big Issue’s Tastes Like Home section about the northern parts of Iran, her aunty and a dish very close to her heart inspired by the region’s famous olive and olive oil… “There is not a single day that I don’t think of my home in Iran, filled with both sad and happy memories, but when I’m making this dip I really travel through time. I smile while I’m preparing it because I know it will not only taste like home but also like love.”
MFWF LEGENDS 2020 AWARD - Loretta Bolotin
"She founded Free to Feed at the age of 25, when she returned to Melbourne after seven years of doing frontline case-work with refugees and asylum seekers in East Africa, Turkey and Christmas Island, as well as work in human rights at The Hague. “I was doing a lot of talking with people about what their challenges were,” she says. Not knowing anybody and not being able to get a job were the most common. “With Free to Feed we feel that we’re directly addressing those core challenges.”
ABC RADIO
“Brave Meals in the time of coronavirus: Former asylum seekers, more than most in the community, know how to navigate difficult times and isolation. That's why Loretta Bolotin helped establish Free To Feed - a social enterprise based on food-based initiatives. It usually provides cooking classes and made-to-order home events and feasts with an emphasis on teaching job skills. But in these times of COVID-19 and social distancing, it's had to change its business model. Jacinta Parson chats to Loretta and Mirna Mamo.”
AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF COMPANY DIRECTORS
”When Melbourne social enterprise Free to Feed was hit with the COVID-19 crisis, all income “evaporated within 36 hours”. But with the help of Jobkeeper and a seasoned chair who had first-hand experience in the global financial crisis, Free to Feed quickly acted and within days had started a new food venture called Brave Meals to keep cash flow up, 15 staff employed and the vulnerable refugee community that it serves nourished and supported.”
IN GOOD HEALTH PODCAST - Listen here
”Food is culture, food is life: We meet two social enterprises using food as a bridge between cultures and lift up their migrant and refugee staff in the process.”
2019
GOURMET TRAVELLER - BUILDERS ARMS X FREE TO FEED LUNCH + BROADSHEET
"This is a classic dish and reflects the olden days in Pakistan when there wasn't the array of spices we have today," says Free to Feed instructor and chef Shahi Syed Burney. "People had to hunt the animal in the jungle themselves and cook with less ingredients, but it still tastes delicious."
“You’ll have drinks and canapes in the courtyard then head upstairs for a feast that includes a contemporary take on a karachi sakjji – a dish that involves colourful boiled eggs stuffed inside whole quail, stuffed inside whole chicken, stuffed inside a whole lamb and grilled over fire.”
CIRCLE IN with Loretta Bolotin
”Loretta’s story is one of conviction, generosity and passion, and takes us from her roots as a curious girl growing up in Melbourne’s multicultural north, to her work abroad as tireless human rights advocate, to the empathetic entrepreneur and inspired mum we see today.”
2018
ABC RADIO MELB, FOODIE TUESDAY
”Fleeing Sri Lanka's civil war, Niro sought asylum in Australia, and spent over six years in immigration detention. Having now settled in Melbourne, Niro teaches Tamil cuisine at Free to Feed classes, as well as running his own food business. He says he learned many of the dishes he now shares as a 'sous-chef' to his mother growing up.”
NAYRAN’S STORY VIDEO
”A day in the life of Nayran Tabiei - find out more at nowtolaunch.org.au or freetofeed.org.au - Thanks to Genevieve O'Shea @genoatshea - Alex Badham @avbadham - Thomas Pollard @pollhard - Daniel Dunn @dandunn__ and music by Gus Franklin @sheahan_drive”
HERALD SUN
"A NORTHCOTE not-for-profit company is helping scores of refugees and asylum seekers get into the food industry.
“Often they are cafe or restaurant owners who have left their country and are now struggling,” Mr Bolotin said. “But that entrepreneurialism is still there within them.”
SBS
"Now to Launch is the next step in Daniel and Loretta’s commitment to breaking down cultural barriers and supporting the livelihoods of people seeking asylum, refugees and new migrants in Victoria.
“The lessons of Free to Feed inspired us to continue to deepen and strengthen the way we work with the community,” says Daniel.”
THE VICTORIAN CONNECTION
”Free to Feed – a mobile cooking school with classes run by refugees – has received a $245,770 LaunchVic grant to roll out a food business incubator program offering 60 refugee and new migrant startups the chance to develop and launch their own high-growth food startup concepts.”
TIMEOUT
”There’s no shame in being hopeless in the kitchen, but if you’re tired of falling back on the few things you can cook without burning the house down, maybe a Melbourne cooking class is in order. Classes range from those led by professional chefs to those run by great home cooks who can share a thing or two about creating delicious dishes for the dinner table.”
GORMAN JOURNAL
”I always had a sense of wanting to do something that was a little bigger than myself. I grew up in a very humble neighbourhood in Melbourne’s deep northern suburbs and had the privilege of going to a school where everyone came from diverse international backgrounds. I think having this cultural exposure from a young age planted the seed for wanting to work and engage with the world around me.”
GOODFOOD
“All good dinner parties need a raconteur, and Free to Feed has some of the best. These hosts have hard-won tales of threat, loss, corruption and new starts, the first-person stories relayed with humour and humility as the scent of spices hangs in the air. Take Hamed, who fled Iran with his pregnant girlfriend to avoid the lash or a jail term. Or Nayran, forced to leave her home in Syria during the brutal civil war.”
DELICIOUS
”There’s little that can’t be fixed with a good meal. It’s the opinion that Melbourne not-for-profit Free to Feed have – a community group that seeks to minimise the barriers faced by Australian refugees through food. The company’s cooking school has been named one of Melbourne’s finest and is a unique experience in which a refugee teaches how to create authentic, traditional dishes from their home country, served up alongside their personal stories.”
THE DESIGN FILES
”Our friends at Free to Feed have joined forces with the awesome team at Hungry Workshop and a brilliant group of local illustrators for their debut cookzine: Potluck!
Featuring a diverse collection of recipes and stories brought to Australia by people seeking asylum, the fundraising publication will be launched with a celebration and print exhibition, on tomorrow night in Northcote – don’t miss it!”
LAUNCHVIC
”Migrants and refugees are recognised as important contributors to successful startup ecosystems. They are known to have high risk appetites, having started a new life in a new country – often with no capital, no credit history, no assets, and no security. The risk-taking that defines a migrant’s experience often continues as they embark on entrepreneurial journeys to establish themselves.”
OF KIN - THE LEAP STORIES: 2017
“In my study of leap takers, it’s those who stay connected to themselves and what matters who embark on creative career re-generation. Because when you know what you care about and why, working out your ‘what’ and ‘how’ gets clearer. Sometimes this means bumping up against a pile of what you don’t want, before you can define what you do want – before you can become free to feed yourself and in turn, those around you.”
THE DESIGN FILES
“It’s not always as straight forward as 1: graduate, 2: survive an internship and 3: land the full-time job you’ve always wanted. Nayran Tabiei grew up in Damascus, Syria, where she lived until she was 22. A worldly young woman, she travelled regularly to support her immediate family spread across the globe (United States, Thailand, Dubai, Sweden, and China). ‘I was the youngest and I would often go to my older sisters to help them through their pregnancies and things,’ she dutifully explains.”
SBS, THE FEED
”In 2012, Nayran was forced to abandon her successful restaurant in Damascus. She made her way to Australia, but without proof of her qualifications, the only work that Nayran could find was washing dishes – not making them. Today Nayran is a Free to Feed instructor passionate about feeding people and about sharing Syrian culture. “As asylum seeker, I don't hope a lot,” says Nayran. “The moment I met Loretta and Free To Feed, it was my happiness.”
CITY JOURNAL
“Basically, we started it because we wanted to deal with two particular issues that people seeking asylum and refugees who are living in the community were facing or are facing, which are social isolation and challenges finding meaningful paid work. So that was our broad intention,” he says.
“It’s evolved quite quickly in bringing it to where it is now, where we’re really focused on the entrepreneurialism and the enterprises of refugees, new migrants and asylum seekers in the food space”.
2016
THE DESIGN FILES
“Persian nougat, also known as Gaz, is super sticky and famously originates from the city of Isfahan, where people flock from all over Iran to purchase the freshest Gaz. Hamed recalled times when he would travel to Isfahan, simply to buy the sweet sticky candy. The more pistachios, the more expensive and prized it would be. If you were trying to impress someone, you would come back from Isfahan with some Gaz, seriously loaded with pistachios.”
BROADSHEET
”Hamed started as a kitchen hand before opening a traditional Persian restaurant in Iran’s capital, Tehran. He fled in 2012 with his wife, who was four months pregnant at the time. En route to Australia, via Indonesia, he and his wife took a small boat that was escorted to Christmas Island, where they were detained. They were finally resettled in Melbourne, where they had their first child, a girl.”