Breaking barriers for refugee and asylum-seeking chefs

Sara Abdel-Rahim ’17

Senior Consultant, Booz Allen Hamilton

Co-Founder, Tables Without Borders

MAJORS: POLITICAL SCIENCE AND ARABIC

Sara Abdel-Rahim ’17 is the co-founder of Tables Without Borders, which provides opportunities for refugee chefs and those with interests in the culinary arts. In 2015, while living among Egyptian immigrants in northern Italy through a Notre Dame research grant, she studied how available services affected economic and educational integration outcomes. Later, as a Fulbright Fellow, she studied Greece’s approach to integrating young refugees into its preparatory educational system, finding that a lack of social ties between the refugees and policymakers had a negative impact on integration outcomes.

Abdel-Rahim and co-founder Sam Sgroi created Tables Without Borders as an answer to the systemic challenges of the resettlement process. The organization’s training program pairs refugee chefs with notable restaurants in Washington, D.C., where they are able to develop their culinary talents, build networks, and receive reliable pay. Tables Without Borders goes on to support these chefs by helping them find a job or open their own restaurant. Tables Without Borders seeks integration by celebrating each chef’s heritage and highlighting the traditions and tastes of their home countries.

Abdel-Rahim earned her Notre Dame degree in political science and served as president of the Muslim Student Association as a senior. She is currently an Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton in Washington, D.C.