Institute Skuhna is a social enterprise that runs a restaurant providing authentic food from Africa, Asia and South America whose goal is to help migrants from Africa, Asia and South America enter the Slovenian labour market and find jobs in the cultural and food industry. Its mission is to create opportunities for bringing together people from all backgrounds to build and promote tolerance, trust and respect in the community regardless of the underlying differences between people in their culture, belief or ethnicity. To achieve their goal, the institute Skuhna is inventive in finding new ways, knowledge and channels to grow. They also applied for EU funding under the call for proposals Mentoring schemes for social enterprises. A mentoring program designed to improve the knowledge and competencies of their employees was carried out. They joined forces with one of Slovenia’s best chefs Uroš Štefelin from the Vila Podvin restaurant, which allowed their enterprise to grow professionally and provided their guests with new culinary experience. ‘’It’s an unforgettable experience to have all these different cultural backgrounds in one place and to work with the amazing Skuhna team. I feel privileged to be able to share experience and get to know different approaches to cooking at the same time. I’m excited that we are co-creating this amazing story of inventing new dishes that blend flavours of the migrants of various backgrounds and of creating this rich diverse cuisine’’, commented Uroš Štefelin about its working together with Skuhna team. The Skuhna team also participated in a mentoring program on marketing delivered by Blaž Branc. Mentoring schemes are an important driver of growth and professionalisation in social enterprises with mentors representing a significant element of their support environment. 

The project helped create one new job, supported the inclusion of two individuals from vulnerable groups in the work of the social enterprise and safeguarded one job. Moreover, the mentoring program helped increase the chances of social integration for migrants, enriched Slovenian culinary map and brought the cultural elements of different parts of the world closer to Slovenians. 

PHOTO: UKOM/Stane Jeršič and Barbara Jakše Jeršič