Emma's Torch

Emma’s Torch is a non-profit social enterprise that trains refugees, asylees, and survivors of human trafficking in the culinary arts and empowers them to build meaningful careers in the culinary industry. Students participate in a full-time, paid culinary training program. As part of that program, they gain work experience at one of Emma’s Torch’s social ventures in New York City or Washington, DC. Our mission is to provide refugees with in-depth culinary training as well as employability, equity, and empowerment training, setting them up for successful employment in an industry in which their cultural heritage and cuisine can be celebrated.

Emma’s Torch honors Emma Lazarus, a staunch advocate for refugee rights whose poem, “The New Colossus,” adorns the Statue of Liberty.