For this month’s Learning out Loud blog, it was a pleasure to speak with Paola, the owner of Amigos, a Colombian-Spanish restaurant on Bagshot Street in Walworth.
A collaborator and friend of Pembroke House, Paola embodies the joy and power of building connection. As well as managing Amigos, she plays an active role in supporting the Latin American community and beyond, including through LA United, a network that connects Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs, and The Giving Lab, a community-led fund aimed at tackling health issues locally.
Paola moved to Walworth with her family 8 years ago with the ambition of opening Amigos in a culturally diverse area . “We started from scratch,” she explains. The empty site was previously a betting shop, but the family saw potential in transforming it into something new: a welcoming, intergenerational and family-run space centred around delicious food. The community responded positively. Paola recalls handing out flyers on Mina Road and being moved by their desire to help. “They were amazing, and so friendly. Their support has always been there since we started to knock and give out flyers”.
Just as our Walworth Neighbourhood Food Model (WNFM) emphasises the power of food to bring people together, for Paola the restaurant is a brilliant way to connect with the neighbourhood. “People just want to talk!” she reflects. “Many people are lonely, and there are a lot of unmet needs in the neighbourhood”. Customers want an environment where they feel safe and as though they belong to or are part of an extended family. Ladi, Amigos’ head chef, and Paola’s stepmother, is considered affectionately by regulars as an adopted grandmother. As Paola explains “she prepares food with loving hands and even adapts meals for people based on their tastes”.
Of course forming connection isn’t always easy, especially when you’re starting afresh. Paola emphasises the particular challenges for migrant communities. Language barriers, long working hours and the rising cost of living can make finding time for leisure difficult.
For Paola, building trust is an important route towards forming enduring engagement and connection. When she was introduced to the WNFM through Isabela, the Neighbourhood Programme Manager at Pembroke House, Paola was impressed by the consistency of her care and interest. “It’s important when you feel like a person is trustworthy and is not using you for their own purposes. We don’t want people to act like politicians who come and use us for elections and then forget about us afterwards. You can tell that Isabela really loves the project, and that her intention is to help. She really involved me in the process so that I felt like I was part of it. It’s helpful when you belong to something and you feel that what you’re doing is important somehow.”
Though the idea of a food model was initially a strange concept for Paola, her participation in the Walworth Food Mapping project helped her to recognise the different ways people engage with food in the neighbourhood. Rather than fostering competition, understanding the diversity of activity in the area and connecting with people –whether they are restaurant owners, local growers, and local chefs– can help to build a more resilient neighbourhood. At the closing dinner for the first phase of the mapping project, where all the participants gathered at Amigos, Paola recognised the huge potential for creative collaboration. “People with allotments want to experiment with growing different foods, restaurants need fresh ingredients, and shared meals open people up to new tastes or shared memories. The challenge is knowing how to carry on now that Isabela has opened that door. How do we get people deeply involved and ensure that their different needs and interests are met?”
Paola is already taking a further step through her involvement in the Walworth Road Opportunity, a unique project to bring the WNFM onto the high street. Part of the Founder’s Working Group, she is enthusiastic about the possibility of “celebrating diversity, promoting local ownership, and building a more inclusive and sustainable food system in Walworth”. Paola’s active engagement has also spread to her family. Ladi recently participated in the Chef’s pilot– a project working collaboratively with local chefs and food businesses in Walworth to co-design a programme of professional development support. Through this process participants develop skills and knowledge that not only benefit themselves but can be extended to their wider community.
For Paola, connecting with other people plays an important role in developing our individual and collective agency and capacity to change our lives. Her recent involvement in MPower Leaders, a programme that supports migrants to run for local council, reaffirms her commitment to supporting her community. “I want to advocate for migrant participation in politics. When decisions are made, we are not part of the process, and if we don’t participate we remain invisible”.
Follow @amigos on social media, and make sure to try out their food yourselves! If you’re interested in finding out more about the WNFM or the Walworth Road Opportunity, please get in touch with Isabela.