Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Bueler. She and her team share their story with us below.
Welcome Neighbor STL You don’t need an invitation to do the right thing.
Elevator Pitch: Welcome Neighbor STL began in the fall of 2016 with a toiletry drive for newly-arrived refugee families and has organically grown into a multi-faceted organization with over 3,000 supporters. The organization partners with community allies to help meet the evolving needs of refugee families.
Welcome Neighbor STL begin in November 2016 with a toiletry drive for refugee families. Founder, Jessica Bueler, had no idea that she was starting an organization when she organized the drive; she just felt compelled to do something after reading an article in the Riverfront Times about a group of teen refugees who were attacked outside their home near the Page and Hodiamont intersection.
Bueler signed up to use the social media platform Nextdoor to connect with neighbors to share what she learned about refugee families. It turns out that she wasn’t the only one who wanted to do something to help. The response to the toiletry drive was overwhelming; two trucks were needed to deliver the collected items, and the people who helped collect the items were eager to do more. They began visiting the refugee families living at the ‘Hodiamont,’ forming friendships and helping the families navigate this new, unfamiliar world.
Initially, Welcome Neighbor STL worked to ensure that the refugee families had their basic needs met. They helped families find furniture, translate necessary documents, learn English, and eventually move out of the bug-infested apartments to nicer homes.
As the refugees’ needs change, so do the organization’s efforts; it’s ever-evolving. “Now it’s about giving the refugees a platform so that they can create a better life and future for themselves,” says Bueler.
The Supper Club dinners have done just that. To date, there have been 195 dinners held throughout Missouri and Illinois, raising $365,000. Ninety percent of the proceeds are given to the refugee women who prepare the meals. This popular event has brought the community together for family-style meals, while at the same time, helping to provide a meaningful income for refugee women who are still able to stay home and care for their children.
Welcome Neighbor STL’s success is a larger story about what can happen when communities come together to support a common goal.
Since that initial toiletry drive, the organization has grown to over 3,000 supporters, each offering something unique. Some partner with a refugee family, helping them with tasks such as enrolling their kids in school or filling out insurance forms; others teach English or even provide monetary donations. “We ask the volunteers about their skills and what they enjoy doing,” says Bueler.
“There’s no cookie-cutter approach,” she adds.
The Supper Club dinners wouldn’t exist without donated venues, community members purchasing tickets, and mentors helping lead the way. Christy Schlafly at Ford Hotel Supply and Michelle Crowe at Katkin has been instrumental in making it possible for refugee cooks to receive their ServeSafe certificates by coordinating the translation of the training materials from English to Pashto, Dari, Arabic, and Bosnian. Those efforts have allowed more than 110 refugee cooks to complete the program and earn their ServeSafe Food Handlers Certificates.
A partnership with St. Louis Teens Aid Refugees Today (START), a student-led group from St. Louis Priory School, has enabled Welcome Neighbor STL to expand its work. For the past year, a refugee cook has prepared 100 meals that were delivered to City Hope STL homeless shelter and then distributed to four shelters in total. To date, donors have contributed $53,150 to provide 7,584 meals for unhoused individuals while also helping refugees earn a meaningful income in the process.
Welcome Neighbor STL added a new branch to its programming in August of 2022 by merging with the newly-formed community group HumanKind STL . This new programming will focus on providing driver education training for women and purchasing vehicles for newly arriving refugee families.
“I want our narrative to be about helping people,” says Bueler.
Welcome Neighbor STL is truly an organization by the community and for the community.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
COVID-19 presented the biggest challenge to date as it interrupted our Supper Club events. The entire entrepreneurial model of cooking live for people and allowing refugees to share their culture and stories in person through food was halted. So our organization pivoted to the drive-through supper club events to hone in on social media and crowd-sourcing messaging to share refugee stories.
I believe our strength as an organization lies in our ability to QUICKLY make decisions to help the people we serve. When a potential struggle presents itself, we work as a collective to resolve the issue as fast as possible. We allow our volunteers to problem solve WITH us.
So many organizations keep their volunteers on the outside as if they know better. But we understand the importance of allowing the people who are doing the work be allowed to have input in the decision-making process.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Our organization is known for our Supper Clubs and our assistance in transitioning refugees into American life here in St. Louis. Welcome Neighbor STL refugee cooks are truly professional cooks. All refugee cooks are ServSafe certified and have had the necessary training in commercial kitchens. This certification and training benefit the refugee cocks as it is something they can always use, even when they transition out of the support needed from our organization. Welcome Neighbor STL is providing them with real-world skills and training while allowing the refugees to share their cultures and stories with their new American friends.
Our organization believes that you don’t need an invitation to do the right thing! Therefore no ask is too big or too small. We simply try to connect those in need with those who can help.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
When COVID-19 ramped up, all of Welcome Neighbor STL’s in-person dinners had to be canceled, but the organization was able to pivot to be able to keep funds coming in and keep relationships intact with a drive-thru system.
Welcome Neighbor STL tested the concept for World Refugee Day back in June 2020, and it was a hit.
“Everybody was really sad because they didn’t have the same opportunity to meet other people, to make friends, to practice English,” says Jessica Bueler, founder and executive director of Welcome Neighbor. “Now that we’ve been able to revamp this and to pivot it to drive-thru meals and curbside delivery, now the cooks of course are very excited to be back in the kitchen to be able to share their culture.”
Meals are usually distributed from STL Foodworks, a commercial kitchen located in the Central West End neighborhood.
People wanted to help, but they didn’t know how they could. We turned to our social media marketing and our drive-thru supper clubs to connect with people when we couldn’t be together in person.
Pricing:
- Syrian Menu – Starts at $20 per person
- Afghan Menu – Starts at $20 per person
- Morrocan Menu – Starts at $20 per person
- Indian Menu – Starts at $20 per person
- International Menu (combination of countries)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://welcomeneighborstl.org
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/welcomeneighborstl
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/WelcomeNeighborSTL/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/WNSTL
- Other: https://welcomeneighborstl.org/impact/how-you-can-help/
Image Credits
Welcome Neighbor STL
