Lunch and Learn: building skills, confidence and community through food

The sound of chopping boards and quiet conversation carries from the kitchen at ASC’s Newtown Centre as people gather for the weekly Lunch and Learn program. 

Some are checking recipes, others are laughing over ingredients, and the lead cook moves between participants offering guidance as trays begin to fill. By mid-morning, the kitchen is warm with activity, and the rhythm of cooking, learning and connection is well underway.

Lunch and Learn is a weekly, community-led program at the Asylum Seekers Centre that combines food relief with structured work experience and skills development for people seeking asylum in Greater Sydney. Generously supported by the City of Sydney, it responds to immediate food insecurity while opening pathways to employment and participation.

How a new model began

Lunch and Learn began with a simple question: what would a program look like if it was shaped by the people it was meant to support?

“We weren’t trying to design something for people,” says ASC’s Community Engagement Specialist Novela Corda. “We wanted to build something with them.”

From client feedback, two themes stood out: a desire to contribute to the community, and a strong interest in cooking. Lunch and Learn grew from that, designed around participation and lived experience rather than a traditional service model.

“Food kept coming up,” Novela says. “Not just as a need, but as a strength.”

Now led by a current ASC client as program coordinator, the model is grounded in lived experience and shaped day to day by the people in it.

Each week, up to 80 culturally appropriate meals are prepared and shared with people seeking asylum, including those facing homelessness and food insecurity. Participants cook for real need, in real time.

“It’s real work,” Novela says. “That changes everything.”

Sharing cultures, building futures 

Lunch and Learn participants complete a seven-week work experience program in a commercial kitchen, supported by accredited training in food safety and hands-on learning with a volunteer chef. They move between tasks, learn kitchen operations, and step into responsibility quickly.

“You see confidence build fast,” Novela says. “People are leading sessions within weeks.”

Cultural exchange is central. Recipes and traditions from different countries are shared across the benches, shaping menus that reflect the diversity of the group.

“Food carries memory,” Novela says. “And it connects people.”

Since February 2024, more than 55 participants have completed the program. 62 per cent have moved into employment, with others going on to further training or volunteering. All leave with experience, referees, and practical skills for hospitality and food service roles.

Just as often, they leave with something less measurable: routine, confidence, connection, and community. 

Growing into new places

As the program evolves, it is also expanding. Building on its work in Newtown, ASC is now growing Lunch and Learn into Western Sydney through a new Auburn-based model, increasing access for communities facing transport and geographic barriers.

“The need is there,” Novela says. “And the model is strong because it was built from real voices in the first place.”

What began as a small idea shaped by community feedback has become a steady, evolving program built on participation. Its success has already influenced similar initiatives in other organisations, showing how practical, lived experience-led models can travel further than their original setting.