Bake for Courage: How Bakers Are Showing Solidarity This Refugee Week in the UK

Refugee Week runs 15th – 21st June.

This year's theme is COURAGE

It started with a conversation.

Pa Modou, Head Baker at SUBA Bakery in East London, has been a NEMI customer for years. One day, talking about food, craft, and NEMI’s mission he sparked an idea. What if the baking community came together during Refugee Week - not with a grand gesture, but with a simple one?

One bake. One week. One act of solidarity.

That conversation became Bake for Courage.

What is Bake for Courage?

This Refugee Week (15–21 June), around 20 bakeries and catering companies across the UK are each creating a special Courage Bake using NEMI's organic tea or chai syrup. The bakes are on sale all week - a tangible, delicious way to stand alongside refugees rebuilding their lives in the UK.

This year's Refugee Week theme is COURAGE. It felt exactly right.

At NEMI, we invest our profits into training and employing refugees at our TRAMPOLINE impact cafés in Central and North London — providing real hospitality skills, work experience, and job readiness. Food and hospitality are industries shaped by people who arrived here with courage and a craft. Bake for Courage is our way of celebrating that.

The Bakes

The creativity on show has been incredible. Participating businesses have been riffing on NEMI's teas and chai syrup in ways we couldn't have anticipated:

Chai Cinnamon Buns. Earl Grey Basque Cheesecake. Chai Eton Mess. Chai Cream Buns. Matcha & White Choc Brownies. Sunshine Pie.

Each one is different. Each one is made with care, and with intention.

Who's Taking Part

The response from the food community in this inaugural year has been fantastic. Taking part this Refugee Week are:

London bakeries: Luminary Bakery (Stoke Newington) · The Clink (Brixton) · SUBA (Clapton, Spitalfields, Walthamstow) · Bara (Peckham) · Eagle Eats (Peckham) · Hearth Bakery (Hackney) · Pavilion (East London)

Across the UK: Grain and Hearth (Whitstable) · Angel Bakery (Abergavenny) · Goat Ledge Café (Hastings) · Bakers Yard (Sheffield) · Heyl (Plymouth) · Imma Bakery (Henley)

Catering companies: Lexington · Thomas and Tate · PINCH · Bennett Hay · Jimmy Garcia

Also our friends at Prept Foundation are taking part,

The campaign is created in partnership with SUBA Bakery and supported by Square.

About SUBA

SUBA is an East London artisan bakery rooted in West African traditions and shaped by multicultural influences across Africa, Europe, and Asia. Pa Modou grew up watching his uncle bake beside a wood-fired oven in West Africa. Now, with three sites across East London and a spot in the Good Food Guide Top 50, SUBA is a reminder of what great baking can be - and who makes it possible.

The name means both "Good Morning" and "See You Tomorrow" in Wolof. That spirit runs through everything they bake. It's exactly the spirit this campaign is built on.

During Refugee Week Pa will be baking a Chai Cinnamon Bun.

What Happens Next?

The week closes with a celebratory café event at our TRAMPOLINE Café in Angel, bringing the food community together.

And in July, Pa Modou and NEMI co-host a baking workshop for refugees - putting the campaign's spirit into practice.

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