A Parish Story from the Downtown District | Spokane, WA
In Spokane, neighbors collaborate for renewal as they work together across cultural barriers and learn to live in solidarity with former refugees and immigrants.
Feast World Kitchen is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit restaurant at the intersection of the Cliff Cannon neighborhood and the downtown district in Spokane, WA. Feast serves a rotating menu of international cuisine crafted by former refugee and immigrant chef-entrepreneurs.
In 2013 Maisa Abudayha and her two young children came to Spokane from Jordan as asylum seekers. Her first 6 months were filled with struggle as she waited for paperwork to come through. She couldn’t work and she knew very few people. Out of desperation, she bravely walked into First Presbyterian Church in her new neighborhood, unsure if they would treat her with kindness and acceptance.
“Feast Kitchen is a restaurant, but it’s so much more behind the scenes.”
Maisa Abudayha, Executive Director
This is how Maisa started to build relationships in the neighborhood, including meeting Ross Carper, who worked part time at the church working on neighborhood and community engagement. Ross also owned a breakfast food truck, and, as someone born and raised in Spokane, he loved to welcome former refugees to his neighborhood. Because of the former refugee population, Cliff Cannon is more diverse than most neighborhoods in Spokane.
In early 2019, an old restaurant building across from the church was for sale, and an idea began to form among neighbors inside and outside the church: what if someone formed a commercial kitchen where former refugees and immigrants like Maisa and dozens of others could work toward becoming “side hustle” chef entrepreneurs as they earned income, built career skills, and developed connections in Spokane through the cuisines they cook? Wouldn’t that be cool?
That Spring, Ross came to Inhabit, which was a turning point for him in helping bring Feast World Kitchen to life. The ideas and conversations had already been brewing, but Inhabit was inspiring on another level: by seeing how other neighborhoods were forming new expressions of God’s love and bringing people together, he realized that maybe God could use his group of neighbors to do something truly special in the neighborhood.
The idea went from “someone should” to “maybe we can” — so the adventure of Feast World Kitchen started moving faster, and the group of neighbors formed a nonprofit around this idea of mutual hospitality around the table. Through many conversations, First Presbyterian purchased the old restaurant building and rented it (very cheap) to the newly formed nonprofit to begin the work!
“Maybe it’s you. Maybe God has everything that God needs right in your neighborhood to do something special.”
Ross Carper, Executive Director
Now, Feast Kitchen has served nearly 100 chef partner families, helping them make significant income (nearly $1 million and counting!) and build career skills, as well as relationships and connections that help former refugees flourish and grow as leaders in the Spokane community. They also use their dining room to impact folks who aren’t chefs, by providing support for members of Spokane’s immigrant community to receive practical support on job applications, resumé building, paperwork, and any other community resource navigation they need.
If you’re in Spokane, visit Feast Kitchen, which is open for pre-orders or walk-in dining Wednesday through Sunday for lunch and dinner. They also cater several events per week and wholesale packaged food items to local grocers and coffee shops! Visit them online at www.feastworldkitchen.org.
