Multicultural entrepreneurs need support as they help build communities

Customers gather at Beginning Bread Bakery Cafe in northeastern Seoul's Gongneung-dong, April 24. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

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 and sources as many ingredients as possible from nearby suppliers, aiming to circulate profits back into the neighborhood's economy.

"Decisions about whether we can hire one more part‑timer or whether we can continue daily contributions to the food bank are not abstract — they directly affect neighbors, students and friends we see on the street every day," he said.

Baek Su-min, left, and Ronald Munkoah / Courtesy of Beginning Bread Bakery Cafe

Munkoah arrived in Korea in 2018 as an exchange student and met his wife in 2019. Over the years, he has built a life, a family and a career here, while watching Gongneung-dong slowly transform from a quiet residential area around a derelict rail line into a vibrant urban village.

He says he has built up a dual perspective on how local economies and families are affected by economic downturns, which is why the bakery looks for every way it can to contribute to the community, and especially to its neediest members.

"The reality on the ground is that many small shops remain on the edge," he said. "Like many commercial zones in Seoul, it is under economic pressure, with small merchants highly sensitive to foot traffic and rent levels. Fixed costs continue every month, but revenue fluctuates with the weather, with exam schedules and with broader economic shocks that reduce everyday spending. This means that even while we donate bread to the food bank and contribute to the city’s social welfare efforts, we are constantly calculating how to survive another slow week."

Multicultural family businesses face an additional layer of vulnerability. "If our shops close, we do not just lose income; we risk losing our foothold and sense of belonging in Korean society," he said.

"In this context, the presence of multicultural families running businesses adds another layer of cultural and economic richness that deserves to be actively supported, not just quietly tolerated."

He stressed his role as a member of the multicultural community who contributes to its development.

"As a multicultural family business, we bridge cultures for customers and neighbors, showing that foreign and Korean backgrounds together can create something rooted in the community," he said.

"Multicultural families like mine play a crucial role in this local story — we invest our savings here, we educate our children here and we often act as informal ambassadors who connect Korean customers with global perspectives and vice versa."

He called for clearer recognition and encouragement from both the city and the national government, "so that our contributions can grow rather than be marginalized."

"Targeted support and clear government recognition of such multicultural enterprises would help us expand this positive impact," he said.

He says that when the government designs support systems for small businesses, it should ensure that information, applications and consulting are accessible to multicultural owners.

"What we need is a combination of predictable, long‑term support — such as stable access to low‑interest financing, tax credits for socially responsible activities like food donations, digital transformation support and sustained promotion of designated alley‑type shopping streets — rather than short bursts of attention."

He added that Beginning Bread is simultaneously a job creator, a service provider and a partner in caring for the most vulnerable residents, and that success stories like this help grow tourism, foreign investment and new cultural content.

"Empowering us strengthens both the local economy and Korea’s image as an open, confident society," he said.

Munkoah hopes the local community, sometimes nicknamed "Gongnidan-gil," develops alongside its residents.

"As a multicultural family, we also hope that 'Gongnidan-gil' will come to stand for a street where people of different backgrounds can open businesses, feel welcome and grow together with their Korean neighbors," he said.

"If 'Gongnidan-gil' is to become more than a catchy name, it should stand for a model where small and medium-sized businesses are treated as partners in regional development: supported in hard times, involved in planning and recognized for their role in both economic growth and social welfare. That model must explicitly include multicultural families, whose courage to invest their lives and savings in Korea is a strength for the city, not a weakness."

He said that with consistent, thoughtful support from the government, multicultural family businesses like Beginning Bread can continue to feed not only the local economy but also the social fabric that holds communities together.

Beginning Bread is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Follow @beginning_bread on Instagram for more information.