Our Reimagining Leadership series spotlights Acumen Fellows who are building solutions that solve problems of poverty and create a world based on dignity. By sharing these stories, our hope is that we can reimagine existing systems and role model a new definition of success.

While translating for refugees in Ceuta, 2019 UK Acumen Fellow Jess Thompson witnessed the challenges many face navigating hostile systems. Inspired to take action, she returned to the UK and sparked an idea through conversations with refugee women: what if cookery classes could be a bridge to employment — and empathy? That idea became Migrateful, a social enterprise using food to foster integration and change perceptions.

Jess shares her journey of founding Migrateful, the power of human connection in shifting narratives, and the lessons she’s learned as a social entrepreneur tackling the UK’s migration and integration challenges.

Q: Tell us about when you first encountered the issue you’re addressing and the moment of hope to imagine it could be different?

Jess: In 2015, having just finished a French and Spanish degree, I went to work for the British Council teaching English in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the Moroccan coastline. There wasn’t much press coverage in the British media, so I knew very little about the refugee crisis there. Ceuta has a Temporary Immigrant Residence Centre known as CETI, run by the Spanish government. It was often filled well beyond capacity with refugees who were forced to wait months before being allowed onto the mainland. Most NGOs in Ceuta are Spanish-speaking, so I helped by translating between charity workers and French-speaking refugees, and by facilitating workshops. The more I learned about the stories and situations of the refugee population there, the more I wanted to help. Understanding how difficult it was to claim asylum in Europe made me even more passionate about fostering a more welcoming society for refugees, especially back in my home country, the UK.

Q: How did the idea for Migrateful come to be?

Jess: The idea for Migrateful was born through conversations with a group of refugee women at a Time Bank project I was running in Tower Hamlets, London. The women were highly qualified but unemployed due to language barriers and their qualifications not being recognized in the UK. When I asked about the skills they could share, many of them said they could cook. This gave me the idea to launch Migrateful in July 2017, initially as a way to support these women into employment by giving them a platform to share their incredible cooking skills. It was also a response to the growing hostility towards migrants in the UK following the 2016 Brexit referendum. 

I realized that a cookery class led by a refugee chef, with everyone cooking together and sharing stories, offered the perfect setting for this kind of positive contact.

Q: What was instrumental in helping you get the idea off the ground?

Jess: Back in the UK, while looking for ways to support newly arrived refugees, I enrolled in a year-long course called The Year Here Fellowship in 2016. The idea was to pilot social business ideas while working directly with the communities you wanted to support on the frontline. The Time Bank project was part of a placement I did with Year Here. I then pitched the Migrateful idea at a crowdfunding event organized by the program, where I secured the first grant to pilot it. Since then, we’ve run over 5,000 cookery classes taught by migrant and refugee chefs from 48 different countries. In 2019, I joined the Acumen Fellowship, which further helped me grow and strengthen Migrateful.