'Wanna help a refugee? Give them a job.'
Path #15: Life lessons from Meymuna Hussein-Cattan, founder of LA's Tiyya Foundation and award-winning restaurant Flavors From Afar.
“It turns out that at my lowest point, I made the best decision.”
It’s been a minute here in Desire Paths world.
The radio silence is mostly because Kim and I have been prepping a big move from Los Angeles BACK to London. Wild times.*
(*To recap: my formative years on Long Island, 12 years—mid-20s to mid-30s—in the UK, and a sunny, surreal gap year, ~18 months, by the ocean in Santa Monica.)
Gonna write a proper post on all this soon. (Spoiler: ❤️ a walkable city more than 24/7 sun.)
Until then, we’ve got a fantastic interview here in LA this week. In fact, it’s someone I’ve been meaning to interview for a long time now…
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Meymuna Hussein-Cattan is the CEO and founder of The Tiyya Foundation. Tiyya has helped thousands of immigrant families, refugees and displaced indigenous people here in Southern California with critical services like job placements, training and housing.
In 2020 (during the pandemic), Meymuna, a refugee herself who came to the US as a kid from Somalia, launched a restaurant in LA called Flavors from Afar, which serves up dishes from a rotating crew of amazing refugee chefs.
It got listed as one of the top restaurants in LA.
It even got a Bib Gourmand nod from Michelin.
Half a year ago, I found myself at an evening fundraiser slash supper club in a half-constructed shell of a new restaurant—the future combined home of Tiyya and Flavors From Afar. I was invited as a guest (Kim’s been doing some great work over the past year with Meymuna on the marketing front.)
The food was incredible. And Meymuna, dashing around the room, having won seemingly every award under the sun, still manages to stay humble, grounded and focused on what’s next.
Here’s what she’s got brewing…
Glad this is finally happening, Meymuna. So where are you from?
Hey! I was born on a refugee camp in Somalia. My parents were displaced from war in Ethiopia. They were only children at the time—my mom was 12, my dad 15. They met on the camp and got married, and I was born there. I can’t imagine being that young and raising a child alone on the camp, let alone all the complications that happens with childbirth in those settings. My dad was resettled in the US first, and then we reunited with him a year later. I grew up in Orange County. I became the first woman in my family to graduate from high school.
Growing up, did you know much about your family’s background? Or were you shielded from it?
Definitely shielded. And I appreciated that, because I don’t think I would have known how to navigate American culture, trying to make friends, while also learning about all the trauma on top of that. My parents protected me from it. It wasn’t until I was 18 or so, when I created an email account, SomaliQueen360. My dad’s like, You’re not Somali! I said, But my sisters say they’re American citizens! I thought that you are where you were born. He’s like, Let’s talk. That’s how it happened.
What did you talk about?
Being refugees, being displaced, why they never went back to Ethiopia. My relatives especially worked hard to assimilate into Somali culture and identity. One, because it’s a Muslim country, so there’s a lot of shared festivities and customs. And two, it’s this childhood trauma of not feeling protected by your own government.
Did you always have an inkling you’d one day work with refugees?
My undergrad at UC Irvine was in multicultural studies and social sciences, then I got my master’s in organizational management. So I thought maybe I’d work in a museum or nonprofit or HR setting. I wanted to keep my options open, because there’s a whole lot of debt for a master’s degree.
But one day, my mom was like, Hey, I wanna start a nonprofit. Can you help me fill out these forms? And then, I don’t understand these bylaws, can you help me? And soon enough, Can you visit these families with me? She slowly made me a stakeholder. Everything unfolded organically.
We ended up doing speaking rounds on college campuses, which eventually triggered her PTSD. People are educated and inspired by my story, I remember her saying, but I’m the one who walks away with the memories and nightmares. So I had to make a decision: Do I drop this? Or do I play the long game and transform what we were doing into a proper organization?
You chose door number two. What did you want to build?
The way that immigrants and refugees are talked about, and the way humanitarian work is done, there’s this otherness. We wanted to make the topic of refugees and displacement more tangible. This wouldn’t be the normal nonprofit model where you try to make a lot of money really fast by showing images and stories about the problem. And that works, right? Because people need to feel connected. But you can’t do that if the refugees involved are your neighbors, or the people standing at the bus stop next to you, or shopping at the same grocery store. Instead, we needed to show that they’re a part of the fabric of our society.
Was it tough to get Tiyya off the ground?
I was 29 or 30 at the time, with no real experience in board development, nonprofit management or program design. I would apply for grants and people would ask, How long have you been around? We’re committed to people who can make it past three years. It was like, okay, now I’ve gotta go three years without income. What am I doing? I wasn’t made for that world. My world was put your head down, work hard, get that check, save your money, buy that house. That’s what I knew. So this was a risk. I wondered how it was going to affect my livelihood.
The scariest part was a few years ago, when I was close to shutting Tiyya down due to budget concerns. I decided to give myself one last try. Just try it once more and do it your way. And I ended up embarking on this amazing journey of catering with refugee chefs, which turned into a brick and mortar in LA’s Little Ethiopia neighborhood, which totally revitalized the nonprofit, despite the pandemic. It created trust with the public, because now I had a storefront people could interact with, where they could celebrate and support these refugees. It turns out that at my lowest point, I made the best decision.
Lo and behold, Flavors From Afar claimed a spot as one of the top 101 restaurants in LA. How familiar were you with the restaurant industry?
Ha… I had almost zero experience in the restaurant world. I had a cashier’s job at Carl's Jr. when I was like 15 years-old and got fired after three months.
Perfect. What did you do wrong?
Probably something stupid. Maybe I said a bad word. My boss was like, You gotta go!
You're not cut out for this, kid. We’ve all had those jobs.
So I was really taking a chance with Flavors. I thought, just hire the people who know what they’re doing and we’ll be all right. So I did that. I had job descriptions of my dream team. And then I realized I needed to step up my game, because after the pandemic, one restaurant after another kept shutting down. Last year was one of LA’s worst for restaurants. I remember in April or May last year, I had to dip into the savings to cover payroll. We weren’t thriving financially. I thought, Okay, I need to pull the brakes now—to figure out a way where everyone’s love for Tiyya and their love for Flavors from Afar could be housed in the same place.
And that’s resulted in you moving locations. You're now building out a new site in East Hollywood.
Yeah, when we were in Little Ethiopia, I actually didn’t have a restroom. If you needed the restroom as a guest, you had to go next door. Also, the parking was complicated...
Classic LA.
And I couldn’t get a beer and wine license because I didn’t have that restroom. I started off subleasing the kitchen for catering, then acquired front of house, but eventually realized I needed a bigger space. A space to build roots in LA, where I could host Tiyya’s program by day and be available for catering, private events or indoor dining. So I took the risk. And it’s good timing, because I’m wrapping up culinary school soon! Just a few more weeks left…
Wait, you’re in culinary school?
I’m all in.
Obviously. But… why are you doing that?
I didn’t know anything about nonprofits—so I jumped in and learned. Then I didn’t know anything about restaurants—so let’s learn what I need to learn. I want to be the boss who can go into the back and help with prep work. Who you can call on if you need support with grocery shopping. So part of my training now is in restaurant management. The restaurant world has its own mathematics—what you think is the market rate should not be your price if your rent is different from your neighbor’s, for instance. I’m learning all these things I just wasn’t privy to.
What else are you learning?
Part of graduation is doing an internship, so that’s been taking up a lot of time—25 hours a week on top of getting the restaurant ready and managing Tiyya. I’m with a catering company and the woman who runs it is so streamlined. My first assignment was helping out with a 900-guest event for a movie premiere. I put olives on sticks. It was great.
Like an assembly line? You're the olive person, then it moves to the cheddar cube guy?
Yeah, it was four days of prep, but the first day she made us do all the hard stuff. It got progressively easier. On the day of the event, you’re just assembling stuff. I thought catering for 900 people was impossible, but I watched it get done.
The classic immigrant stereotype is of a hard worker. Refugees even more so, because of what they’ve endured to build a new life…
Refugees are just doers. If somebody points us in the right direction, we’ll go, we’ll make it happen. Seeing people who were inspired by Flavors who now want to create their own business, their own catering service, who feel proud and celebrated and seen through the cuisines that we curate in partnership with them—that’s been awesome to witness.
We’ll be running an 8-week course, 16 classes, onsite. The idea is to help folks who are passionate about cooking and the culinary world but who don’t really understand the business side of it. Helping with their food handling license, balance sheet, punctuality, communication, branding, social media. We’re inviting professionals in the culinary world to come in and do workshops to elevate the experience and to let people know they’re not alone. Often you’re in your head and you think something is harder than it really is. I do it all the time.
How do you balance everything? Work life, family life, personal life.
I’m really lucky because my husband Shukry and I work together full time. We can still have walks with the kids in the morning, take our daughter to school, have lunch together, then chit-chat about work and game-plan our weekly schedule. That freedom is really helpful.
How did you two meet?
At LAX, helping refugees! He was a case manager at a resettlement agency at the time, and he needed help resettling a family to Orange County. He had this itty bitty little car. My mom and I were still applying for our articles of incorporation back then, and we published a tiny website letting people know how to contact us. Through a referral, he heard about Tiyya. We met at the airport. Then he asked me out to lunch. I was convinced it was a work meeting! I brought my notebook and my pen. Now we’ve got two kids…
That’s funny.
So from the outside, it looks like I’m doing a whole lot, but I’m supported. I have a cousin that helps with the kids, a husband I work with full time, a fantastic team, and a remarkable board of directors that helps with strategy, guidance and moral support.
Where do you see Tiyya and Flavors five years from now? What message do you want to share?
My big goal is to spread to other major cities. If we could make it in LA, we could do well in Chicago. We could do well in Miami. Just bringing that vibe of cultural celebration, food, and skills-sharing. Do you want to be helpful? Well, what do people need? Find housing for a refugee. Go to landlords and the owners of these properties and vouch for them. Wanna help a refugee? Give them a job!
❤️ MEYMUNA’S PICKS ❤️
Kids of Immigrants. They’re super cool. I love their apparel and that they’re making a conversation around immigration and refugees—and being a child of these environments—very tangible. Things like honoring your parents and commemorating how hard they’ve worked. They do it in a way that feels cool and authentic. I did a campaign with them, too. It was on my wishlist forever.
Issa Rae. Issa writes, produces, and has her own brand and TV show, Insecure. She’s phenomenal. I like how she makes being half-Senegalese seamless. Her approach is more, I’m in Senegal, I’m at the beach. Just like someone would be at the beach in Hawaii. There’s a normalcy to her travels and identity that I appreciate.
East LA. My favorite LA neighborhoods are Echo Park, Silver Lake, and Los Feliz. I’m stoked our restaurant is now much closer to that side of town. Our supporters kept telling us that we’re moving closer to them, which makes me happy to know that the food scene here was paying attention to Flavors which was in Mid City. I’m also a big fan of Thai Town. There are a lot of mom and pop shops that have been there since the 70s and 80s. I call them old money because they’ve got the old leases. They’re super authentic. You always know the food is going to be good!
Go deeper… Meymuna // Tiyya Foundation // Flavors From Afar
Until next time…
