The D.C. region is home to thousands of immigrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers. Many come here in search of safety and opportunities that they might not have elsewhere. However, it can be challenging to navigate life in a new country – whether it’s learning a new language, making new friends, or finding a new job.

To help address many of those needs, Kerry Brodie founded Emma’s Torch – a nonprofit that provides newly-arrived people to the United States, including survivors of human trafficking, with an 11-week paid apprenticeship in the restaurant industry. Its classroom site doubles as a café and catering business where students learn in-depth culinary skills, sanitation and safety standards. They also have the opportunity to take English lessons, and get assistance in preparing for job interviews.

The nonprofit originally started in New York City in 2016 with just three students, and opened its first geographic expansion this week at 2212 Rhode Island Avenue NE. It’s open Wednesday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. There, customers can enjoy a breakfast and lunch menu that features shakshuka, caramelized onion tarts, crispy chicken sandwiches, and more.

“The inspiration actually came right here from Washington, D.C.,” says Brodie, who was raised in Potomac, Md. “I was volunteering at the N Street Village, and I was having these wonderful conversations with people about food, about what they eat for breakfast, about what food meant to them. And it made me think about how we could be using food to build bridges, to give people opportunity, and help them begin new lives.”

Emma’s Torch takes its name from Emma Lazarus, a 19th century poet and advocate for Jewish refugees. Lazarus wrote the famous words, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” in an 1883 sonnet called The New Colossus to raise funds for the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal. “So it felt like there’s no better person to be named after than her legacy,” says Brodie.

While the café started taking orders on Feb. 7, the training program is already on its eighth cohort of students in the D.C. region, having taken on two cohorts of at least five students at a time over the past few months. So far, the nonprofit has been working with community partners to encourage potential students to apply, including some 50 people just last week, according to Brodie.

“This area, and really our community, has so many new arrivals and this is such a huge opportunity for us to help people,” says Brodie. “But we know that for every student we welcome into the program, we have so many more waiting to join.”

Shawn Townsend, the president and CEO of the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington (also known as RAMW), says the opening of Emma’s Torch should be celebrated and comes at a time where workers and restaurants need the support to stay open.

“At the end of the day, we want successful entrepreneurs,” says Townsend, who attended Wednesday’s opening. “We want successful businesses, regardless of what color your skin is, regardless of where you come from. D.C. is open to all.”

Among those who’ve already benefited from the training at Emma’s Torch in D.C. is 27-year old Miguel Flores. When he was still living in his birth country of Nicaragua, he says he enjoyed working in the restaurant and catering business. However, he was also a political activist who spoke out against what he called a dictatorship. Like many in his country, he says, he was imprisoned for it.

But on Feb. 9, 2023, Flores and more than 200 other political prisoners were suddenly freed by the Nicaraguan government and put on an airplane bound for Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia. The experience was bittersweet for him.

“I didn’t say goodbye to my family. I didn’t say goodbye to anyone. Of course, for a long time I was frustrated about what I was going to do in this country,” says Flores, who now lives in Columbia Heights.

During the first few months after arriving, Flores says he got help from a local church and made a friend there. They eventually told him about the training program when it initially started accepting applications. He applied and graduated last November. Flores says he now leads the overnight shift at the Four Seasons Hotel.

“I enjoy my work hours, I enjoy the time I have in the kitchen, I enjoy everything I do,” says Flores. “My gratitude for Emma’s Torch is so much that I also want to be the voice for others who feel now the way that I did in the past.”

In Nicaragua, Flores says he dreamed of one day becoming a public servant all while opening his own restaurant and serving traditional meals. While he knows he might not ever be able to return, he says the training has renewed his hope of one day opening his restaurant in the District instead.

“Not everything is dead. Not everything is lost. I have something to do that still connects me with mine. And I’m going to do it. I expect you to come visit me when I do,” says Flores.