Migrants Find Joy and a Taste of Home in a Manhattan Church Kitchen

A woman in a red hijab and flowing yellow blouse carefully ladled chicken bathed in crackling oil into an industrial-size pot before smothering it with carrots, potatoes, cabbage and eggplant. Stirring vigorously, she sprinkled in seasonings until stovetop alchemy took hold and the mixture slowly turned into a fragrant stew.

The woman, Oumou Doumbouya, learned to cook this chicken-and-rice feast from her mother back in her West African homeland of Guinea and used to make it for birthdays and weddings. This time, she said, the special occasion was just being able to cook again. She arrived with her family in New York City in October 2022 after crossing the southern border, and the shelter where they stay does not have a kitchen she can use.

So she brought her cooking to the cramped kitchen in the basement of the Metro Baptist Church on West 40th Street in Midtown Manhattan. The hands-on kitchen is the magic behind a volunteer-run center that has helped thousands of migrants start over in the city. Called R.O.C.C. — for Resources, Opportunities, Connections, Community — the center opened a year ago and has been supported mainly with small donations from individuals and community and religious organizations.

Migrants from more than a dozen countries, including Venezuela, Honduras, Russia and Sudan, have worked side by side in the kitchen, taking as much joy and pride in their cooking as they do in sharing the flavors of their homelands with new friends. The center has created a close community that has become a counterpoint to the overflowing shelters, bureaucracy and anti-immigrant protests that have in part come to define the city’s migrant crisis.