Multicultural entrepreneurs need support as they help build communities
Beginning Bread Bakery Cafe in northeastern Seoul's Gongneung-dong neighborhood, is not your average cafe. Run by a multicultural family, it is helping expand the neighborhood's multicultural character — not through offering rare foreign delicacies on menu or decorating the shop with knickknacks from distant countries, but by being actively present in the local community. "We operate with the mindset of being a neighborhood anchor rather than just a business," said Ronald Munkoah, a Cameroonian resident of the area whose Korean wife, Baek Su-min, owns the business. "Each day, we bake fresh bread and pastries for local residents, students and office workers, and we provide part of our production to the city council’s food bank so that homeless people and low‑income neighbors can eat with dignity," Munkoah said. "This means that even on difficult days, the oven at Beginning Bread Bakery Cafe is on not only for sales but also for social responsibility, because we see ourselves as part of the local safety net, not just the local market." He added that the bakery employs local residents
