NEW YORK, June 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The coffee
community in New York City and
Los Angeles are coming together
for Refoodee, a non-profit organization empowering refugees through
the economic empowerment of the hospitality industry. Refoodee has
partnered with the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and will be
launching the Refoodee Flight, a specialty line of Counter Culture
coffee to spotlight the intersection of coffee production and
forced displacement. Tastings of the flight will be available to
the public at select New York City
and Los Angeles coffee shops.
Funds raised will go towards training and placing refugee
candidates with barista positions throughout the United States.
Refoodee was created to help address both a humanitarian crisis
and the hospitality industry's labor shortage. According to the
UNHCR, there are more than 68.5 million people (including 25.4
million refugees) forcibly displaced with a new person becoming
displaced from their home every two seconds globally. In
the United States, there were over
1 million open jobs in the leisure and food services industry in
March, a 35% increase from the same period two years ago according
to the Department of Labor.
Refoodee's founder, Whitney
Noelle, hopes Refoodee will "inspire companies to make the
commitment to hire and mentor refugees." Whitney comes from a
lineage of humanitarian activists and credits her grandmother, an
asylee from North Korea, as
inspiration for creating Refoodee. "We as humans are more similar
than we are different and my intention is that Refoodee will serve
as a beacon for this message," said Whitney.
Whitney partnered with author of The Underground Culinary
Tour and hospitality software founder, Damian Mogavero. With over 10,000 restaurants in
70 countries, Damian experienced the industry's labor shortage
first hand through his clientele. "Starting with the coffee
community was a natural fit as they were so passionate about
Refoodee's mission and there was an opportunity to bring awareness
that these coffees come from places with significant refugee
crises."
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organization dedicated
to saving lives, protecting the rights of and building a better
future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless
people. UNHCR works to ensure that everybody has the right to seek
asylum and find safe refuge, having fled violence, persecution, war
or disaster at home. For more information, please visit
www.unhcr.org.
Contact:
Shelby Ragin:
shelby@refoodee.com
Whitney Noelle:
whitney@refoodee.com
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content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/non-profit-launches-to-empower-refugees-while-planning-to-help-address-the-hospitalitys-labor-shortage-300871648.html
SOURCE Refoodee