Who are we?

Khora Athens is a non-hierarchical collective dedicated to providing dignified access to asylum support, food, clothing, and community space in Athens, Greece. Open since 2016, we remain rooted in solidarity, autonomy, and the belief that everyone has the right to the basic means to live. Through our Social Kitchen, Free Shop, and Asylum Support Team, we offer free hot meals, hygiene products, casework support, and welcoming spaces for all. We advocate for an end to borders, papers for all, and community beyond nationality.

We’re calling on our extensive Khora family and network to help us keep our Social Kitchen open in 2025. The prices in our city are rising and our neighbourhoods are facing rapid gentrification. As a result, grassroots organisations and community-led places are struggling to survive and keep providing necessary services that the state is unwilling to provide.

We’ve decided to renew the lease on our community kitchen space so we can keep serving free, hot food to anyone who needs it, and provide a community space for all to eat and socialise in. After our first community centre in Exarchia was converted to luxury housing, we want to prevent our Social Kitchen in the adjacent neighbourhood of Kypseli suffering the same fate.

Help us keep community spaces open in our city!

What are you donating for?

€10 cover the ingredients for 25 portions of hot nutritious vegan food

€20 cover the cost of 200 take away boxes to distribute food on the streets for one week

€30 cover 1 tuktuk ride for the ~500kg vegetables we get for free at the weekly market run

€50 cover the cost of a 25kg bag of rice that equals 350 portions

€70 cover the monthly costs for gas we use for cooking

€150 cover the electricity for two weeks for our Social Kitchen

€300 cover the weekly rent for our Social Kitchen

Why now?

Athens is facing rapid gentrification, with rents rising and AirBnB and international investment pushing local people and migrants out of our neighbourhoods. Meanwhile, Greek state and EU policies force people on the move to isolated, prison-like camps outside the city, far away from community and solidarity networks. People are trapped in endlessly dysfunctional asylum systems that leave them without papers and at constant risk of police violence.

It’s now more important than ever to keep community spaces like ours open. Khora’s Social Kitchen functions as a safe, warm, welcoming space for everyone, offering community and solidarity in the face of violent and inhospitable conditions created by state measures and migration policies. This year, we’ve seen more and more people - locals and people on the move alike - using the kitchen in the evenings as a place to sit and socialise, free from judgement or charge. We serve over 800 meals every week to people who need it, and started delivering hot food to other neighbourhoods in the city to increase the amount of people we reach.

With the current political shift to the far right seen across Europe, increasing pushbacks and border violence, and the re-election of the far right Nea Demokratia government in Greece, the work of grassroot organisations that stand in solidarity with refugees is becoming all the more important. With global crises worsening and funding for migration-related projects is being reduced, we are even more dependent on your donations and support.

Help us to keep our Community Kitchen in Kypseli alive in 2025. We are here to stay !