For centuries, food has brought people together.

This World Day of Migrants and Refugees on Sunday 27 September, we invite you to gather your community – at your home, parish or workplace – and share a meal to stand in solidarity with people seeking asylum and refugees, and to raise vital funds to support families living here in our local community. 

Every dollar you raise will help JRS Australia continue to provide specialist casework, food, emergency relief, support for women facing sexual or gender-based violence, and employment assistance to individuals and families who have been forced to flee their homes and are rebuilding their lives in Australia.  

Host a Cook to Connect Meal

When you come together with your friends, family or colleagues to host a shared meal, you are choosing connection over fear.  

Cook to Connect is an invitation to build community, celebrate diversity and create a culture of welcome. It is an opportunity to be together, share stories, learn from one another and stand alongside refugees, people seeking asylum and migrants. 

Whether you host a simple morning tea or a large community gathering, your table can become a place of solidarity, and the start of a new chapter for someone beginning their journey in Australia. 

How to participate  

1. Register to Host – Sign up to become a Cook to Connect host by creating your own fundraiser here.

2. Received your Free Host Pack – We will send you everything you need to plan your event and start fundraising. Your Host Pack includes information about forced displacement and seeking asylum in Australia, conversation cards, promotional resources and fundraising tools.  

Your Host Pack will also include a copy of our Cook to Connect Recipe Book, a collection of recipes shared by women from JRS Australia’s Finding Safety Project. This book is a celebration of their heritage, evidence of their survival, and a gesture of hope for a new beginning. You may wish to choose to cook a meal from this book at your event. 

3. Host your meal, your way – A parish morning tea. A long table in your backyard. A ticketed event at a hospitality venue. There’s no wrong way to Cook to Connect. Pick a date that works for you, invite your community, decide on the menu, and start fundraising! Ask your guests to donate through your personal fundraising page.  

4. Cook and connect! Gather together, share a meal and celebrate the rich cultures, traditions and stories that make our communities stronger. As you eat, connect with one another, deepen your understanding and help create a more welcoming Australia for refugees, people seeking asylum and migrants. 

Sharing a meal can happen anywhere, with anyone.  

• At your parish: Make Cook to Connect your Migrant and Refugee Sunday celebration on Sunday 27th September. Invite your congregation to gather after Mass, bring a dish and share in a meal together!  
• At your workplace: Host a shared lunch, invite donations, and open up a conversation about the world beyond your workplace. 
• At home: Gather the people you love around your table. Cook something new. Tell the story behind the dish. Ask your guests to give what they can.
• In your community: A neighbourhood group, a community organisation, a book club, or a run club, any community can host a Cook to Connect event!  

You may also wish to invite a JRS Refugee Leader to join your gathering and share their story. However you choose to Cook to Connect, you can help make a real difference for refugees and people seeking asylum. 

Your Impact  

Every donation represents a small act of welcome, helping JRS accompany people seeking safety at every stage of their journey.  

• $50 helps provide a family with a voucher for food, toiletries or baby supplies. 
• $100 helps an individual access medical care or pay for essential prescriptions. 
• $250 helps a person seeking asylum with training to find meaningful work in Australia.
• $500 helps connect women experiencing violence with support to rebuild their lives.
• $1,000 helps fund emergency accomodation for a family facing homelessness.

Register to host today and become part of a story that stretches far beyond your table. 

About the Finding Safety Project 

The Finding Safety Project is a key “missing piece” in the services sector puzzle, bridging the knowledge, capacity and practice gap between the asylum seeker and refugee sector and the domestic and family and sexual violence support sector. 

Many of the women we accompany overcome barriers that no one should have to face. Because of their temporary visa status, they are excluded from healthcare, income support, safe housing and other essential services. 

The first project of its kind in NSW and one of the first in Australia, the Finding Safety Project continues to lead the way by resourcing women, improving safety outcomes and building community capacity to prevent and respond appropriately to complex sexual and gender-based violence.  

At the heart of the Finding Safety Project is our Women’s Space in Western Sydney: a place where women come together to find safety, access support, share skills, and begin rebuilding their lives in community.  

We invite you to explore some of these stories: 

• Where Their Struggle Is, So Is Their Strength – Chloe Watts reflects on how homelessness, gender-based violence and visa insecurity intersect for women on temporary visas. Drawing on her experience in the Finding Safety Project, Chloe challenges deficit-based narratives and reminds us that women should be recognised not for the barriers they face, but for the extraordinary resilience and leadership they show every day. Read the reflection.

• Beyond the Final Whistle – Magdalene Konneh reflects on the contrast between the way Australia celebrates migrants’ achievements on the world stage, and the realities faced by the women she supports through the Finding Safety Project. Her reflection challenges harmful rhetoric and calls for an Australia where every woman has the opportunity not just to survive, but to belong and thrive. Read the story

• A Safe Place to Sleep: Anita’s Story – Anita’s journey reminds us that escaping violence should never mean facing homelessness. After leaving an abusive relationship while pregnant, she found herself with nowhere safe to go. Her story highlights both the extraordinary resilience of women seeking safety and the urgent need for more accessible housing pathways. Read Anita’s story

• A Day in the Life of our Finding Safety Project Manager – Sara Muzamil shares what it is like to respond to women and children experiencing crisis every day through our Women’s Space. Her reflection offers a powerful insight into the difficult decisions, systemic barriers and moments of hope that shape the Finding Safety Project. Read Sara’s reflection 

• Finding Safety Project: When the System Fails, We Step In — But We Can’t Do It Alone – Through Reva’s story, we explore how specialist services are often forced to fill gaps left by existing systems, and why sustainable investment is needed to ensure women on temporary visas are not forced to choose between violence and homelessness. Read Reva’s story

• Julia’s Story: Hope. Safety. Permanency. – Julia’s story demonstrates what is possible when women have access to long-term, holistic support. From crisis to permanency, her journey reminds us why investing in specialist services changes lives. Read Julia’s story