The restaurant turned civic center

BanyolesThere's a restaurant in Banyoles where every dish is signed by a woman. Where work isn't just a job, but a springboard for people in vulnerable situations. A restaurant woven from sisterhood and promoted by a women's association in the midst of the pandemic, which over time has become the civic center of the old town of the capital of the Pla de l'Estany region. A space for cultural encounters and social integration, but also for breaking stereotypes. Located in the former Fonda Comas, just a three-minute walk from the Plaza Mayor and the Darder Museum, La Porta del Món was born in the fall of 2020 as a non-profit community project that responded to a need that the Món Banyoles women's association had identified three years earlier. The goal was to create a space where migrant women could gain confidence and autonomy to make the leap into the workforce without the risk of being exploited, based on what they felt most confident in: cooking.

Now, five years later, the project has taken another step forward: it has joined forces with the Sergi Foundation, a private entity that carries out social action in the Girona region, to free itself from the most bureaucratic aspects of managing a business, as well as the management of grants. It also opens its doors to another type of integration: that of younger people.

The answer to two needs

The Sergi Foundation found in La Porta del Món the answer to a shared need among its team at the end of last year. "As the Sergi Foundation didn't have a job placement space, a place to support entry into the workforce, La Porta del Món restaurant was the first project we visited. Over lunch, the two needs came together," explains Èlia Llinàs, the organization's projects and partnerships specialist. "It came about naturally," adds Anna Quintanas, a philosophy professor at the University of Girona and one of the driving forces behind the Món Banyoles association.

The women's association was born in a similarly natural way in 2017. "As women, we realized the segregation in Pla de l'Estany, that people don't mix," Quintanas recalls. "And the idea arose to create an association with the perspectives and voices of women from different backgrounds." At first, learning Catalan dominated the meetings, as well as the celebration of parties, but they soon realized that "the women who brought good food wanted to work but lacked work experience," explains Fatiha Bouchiba. She is the project's technical director and the backbone of everything the restaurant entails: from the kitchen to training, and she also looks for women interested in joining the association.

Bouchiba arrived in Banyoles with her husband from Morocco 18 years ago. Initially, integration was slow, but when her daughter grew up, she took the step of first studying for a management degree and then a higher degree in integration. "Understanding the migration process helps you connect more with people in similar situations," she reflects. When Fátima Soussan arrived from Morocco four years ago, she met Bouchiba. Soussan had recently become a mother and had no one to leave her child with to start working. Some time later, she met Bouchiba again at the supermarket and heard about the restaurant for the first time. "I didn't know the project was to help people like me," says Soussan. Now she's the front-of-house manager, the waitress who takes all the notes for the weekday menu and the Saturday and Sunday menu, and serves the dishes. "I had worked in Morocco, but my experience wasn't valued in Spain, and I had to start from scratch," she adds.

Meals to facilitate work-life balance

La Porta del Món's opening hours also make family management easier. Hadija, who has been in the kitchen for two years after completing the training course, agrees. "The part-time schedule was beyond me," she says, while proudly showing off the Moroccan pastas that are a huge success at the restaurant. "The school is right in front of the restaurant, and I leave at 4 p.m." La Porta del Món serves meals from Wednesday to Sunday, but the space is open almost all day as an inclusive community meeting place, whether for improving Catalan or for activities that seek to break down prejudices and barriers, always creating a network among women.