City Cuisine Global Fusion

Here’s where you’ll find philanthropy and community-building with every bite.

If you are looking for more than your next good meal, be on the lookout for City of Refuge’s new food truck, City Cuisine Global Fusion, making its debut with soft openings and catering opportunities over the winter. The truck will most often be parked at 10 North Garth Avenue, the nonprofit’s headquarters that serves as a community center for hundreds of refugees from nearly forty countries who now call Columbia home.

Expect to be served by the new residents and enjoy a taste of their native cultures and hospitality. 

Each semester, Columbia welcomes academics from around the world seeking new horizons but in recent years, the city has also embraced displaced individuals and families seeking a better life. What began in 2010 with a few locals being neighborly has grown to an organization of full-time staff and nearly 200 volunteers orchestrating connections to assistance programs that help address the basic needs as well as language, education and employment obstacles of Columbia’s new arrivals.

Debbie Beal, City of Refuge executive director, acknowledged that “food is a really important piece of culture and a way to communicate through barriers.” The food truck idea floated around City of Refuge until the organization was awarded a workforce empowerment grant allowing it to become a reality. 

The menu will feature a hybrid of different flavor profiles from around the world.

“We’re trying to get people to step out of their culinary comfort zone a little bit and try international cuisine,” Beal said.

Main dishes will run $12 each and include Southeast Asian-inspired beef bahn mi smash tacos, Middle Eastern jawenah grilled chicken salad or sandwiches, and tahini beef burritos. Za’tar-spiced basmati rice will be among the side dishes that range from $3 to $4 each. Kids beef smash tacos with fries will be $5 and dessert of house made chai ice cream can round out a meal for $3.

“One thing about this initiative that is really beautiful is that we’re getting to teach something but we’re also getting to learn something as well. In that exchange we are also able to share something with the broader community.”

“Depending on who is working in the truck, we are planning on having a rotating menu highlighting one of their recipes from their home country,” Beal added.

Beyond offering a new meal venue for locals, Beal is eager for the public exposure and awareness that the food truck can raise.

“A lot of people don’t know that refugees exist in central Missouri so this new initiative can create a presence in the community to prompt people to ask questions about what City of Refuge is and the clientele we serve,” she said.

Whereas the food truck aims to address the needs of resettled refugees, most of the organization’s work centers around helping address the fundamentals of building a new life. That begins with the basic needs program that assists refugees in accessing food, clothing, housing, social benefits, and medical aid. Programs fan out from there to include the “buddy program” for language tutorials, “homework helpers” once families have navigated school enrollment, a “youth impact” program for the teen population, and professional development that includes a “global artisans” program emphasizing sewing, soap making, baking, and other craft-based skills.

City Boutique thrift store sells those products along with donated items.

Transportation and childcare are two common obstacles, and with growth from community support, the latter is being addressed by a recently opened onsite cross-cultural preschool. 

As for City Cuisine Global Fusion, Beal noted that the food trailer is also used as a training lab in addition to a traditional food truck. Eight months into the eighteen-month grant, Beal explained that while the goals of the truck include actual employment, the space is appropriate for learning employment skills within the restaurant industry. Those skills include familiarity with an American commercial kitchen and its associated cooking skill set, and how to prepare menus and get food handlers licenses.

“Here they are getting hands-on experience to see if they want to go further,” Beal said.

Some refugees have already opened their own restaurants, and the food truck provides a safe training ground for encouraging entrepreneurship without the associated financial risks. 

Cooking classes for City of Refuge clients are currently being offered in the food truck as awareness and interest grows among the clientele. The trailer has become a cross-cultural space where international recipes are traded with basic American dishes that are unfamiliar to the newcomers.

“Relationships are give and take and we’re all about relationships,” Beal said. “One thing about this initiative that is really beautiful is that we’re getting to teach something but we’re also getting to learn something as well. In that exchange we are also able to share something with the broader community.” 

As the old bank location that has become the City of Refuge headquarters, the former drive-thru is being transformed into a covered patio area for dining. Soft opening events are planned to start this fall and details on menus, events, and openings can be found on its City Cuisine Facebook page, on Instagram at @citycuisine_como, or online at cityofrefuge.org.

Plans are solidifying, meanwhile, for catering to begin this winter, and come spring 2025, lunch will be served several days during the week. The long-term goal is to be open weekdays for breakfast and lunch.