Vegabula Summer Edition
Italy
Every summer, when school closes, a teaching restaurant in Brunico stays open. Working in the kitchen and dining room are vulnerable young people, on paid internships, in a place they already know. It's one month. It's enough to begin.
How it works
The Foundation covers the costs that make this extra month possible: the students' paid internships, the teachers who work alongside them, the rental of the spaces. The restaurant opens for lunch Monday through Friday, with a real service, for real guests.
There is one condition we set from the beginning: the interns must be young people with vulnerabilities. Not because they couldn't do an internship elsewhere — but because for those who carry certain difficulties, starting in a familiar environment, with teachers they already know, with a structure they trust, makes a real difference. Vegabula becomes a protected first step into the working world: an authentic professional context, but with a safety net around it.
Why we do it
One month isn't much. But for a young person who doesn't have many opportunities, and for their family, it still means something: an income, a skill, concrete proof that they can do it.
We don't want to assist anyone. We want these young people to learn a trade, do it well, and have something to carry with them when the month is over. The kitchen is one of the most honest contexts there is for this: nothing is faked, nothing is improvised, and when something works you see it immediately — in the plate, in the service, in the face of the person who cooked it.
We believe hospitality can be a genuine tool for inclusion. Not as a slogan, but as daily practice: welcoming those who struggle, giving them time, believing they can make it. Vegabula, in this sense, is a place where that idea is tested for real — every day, at lunch, Monday through Friday.
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