Toronto restaurant The Depanneur opened up its kitchen earlier this year to give Syrian refugees - many of whom lived in hotels when they first came to Toronto - a place to cook for their families.

After a few months, they began to sell their food online and at pop-ups, including most recently at Luminato's Neighbourhood Food Market last weekend.

Now, however, The Dep's Len Senater and a team of affiliated organizations want to make this so-called Newcomer Kitchen a permanent, stand-alone non-profit. So they're crowdfunding to make it all possible.

The Newcomer Kitchen hopes to raise $25,000 by July 19 in order to kickstart the Toronto initiative, while also setting up a model that would enable other restaurants across Canada to open up their doors to newcomers too.

It's worth noting that today is World Refugee Day, so take a look at the Newcomer's Kitchen crowdfunding page.

Photo by Jesse Milns.