[INTERVIEW] Equal Table CEO strives to create bridge for refugees settling in Korea

Mun Jun-suk, left, poses with one of the barista trainees at Naeil Coffee cafe in Seoul in this 2015 photo. Courtesy of Equal Table

Social startup head seeks to support refugees and fight climate change through low-carbon coffee

By Lee Gyu-lee

Living in a foreign country can be tough, especially when one has been forced out of their own country amidst difficult circumstances, and must find a new place to call home as a refugee.

To help refugees put down roots in Korea, Mun Jun-suk, the founder and CEO of social startup Equal Table, has been striving to step in and create bridges for refugees to integrate into Korean society.

The CEO used to run a cafe called Naeil Coffee to help refugees from Africa pursue careers as baristas here. After running it for about six years, he is set to carry on his purpose under a new startup, Equal Table, while adding on another goal of sustainable coffee consumption.

"Our goal is to make a sustainable culture. Refugees are living here with us and if we exclude them from our communities and discriminate against them, it's not going to have a positive impact on society," Mun said in an interview with the Korea Times, April 14, at the company's office in Dongdaemun District, Seoul.

"We intend to come hand in hand with refugees to contribute our positive energy to making the society better and also bring awareness to the issue of the carbon footprint of coffee consumption … it's all a matter of making a sustainable culture of accepting refugees to become part of Korean society."

An illustration of Naeil Coffee, a cafe run by the founder and CEO of social startup Equal Table Mun Jun-suk, to help refugees from Africa become baristas / Courtesy of Equal Table

Mun, who used to be rather unfamiliar with refugees, first came across African refugees living in Korea through volunteering at his church, helping them adjust to Korean culture. As he spent time with and grew closer to them, he said he went through the experience of breaking down his own prejudice against the refugees.

"I also had some sort of prejudices, like that their lives would be dark and pitiful. But after actually meeting them, they were very high-spirited and each of them had the gift of their own talent. And I came to think that it would be nice if more people were to know that," Mun said.

Starting out by organizing flea markets to sell the arts and crafts they made, Mun later came up with the idea of opening a cafe to use it as a platform to help refugees settle into Korean society.

"Back then, coffee was largely perceived as tasting bitter, but if you process it right, it doesn't taste bitter. And that (misconception) reminded me of how the refugees are perceived (in Korea)," he said. "They are talented, normal people, but similarly, to how we think coffee is bitter, people also tend to view refugees in a biased way."

A coffee gift box from Equal Table / Courtesy of Equal Table

So he undertook a year of barista training himself and built up his experience by working in other cafes to open Naeil Coffee in 2014. Each year, he hired two African refugees to work at the cafe, who also learned barista work and the Korean language from a tutor for a year, before closing it down in 2020.

"There were other institutions that ran barista training programs. But the issue is that they can't guarantee them a job. The two most important things are references and Korean fluency," he said. "If these people are going to get a job, they need experience and should be familiar with the language. So we ran something of a vocational school."

Mun said that the cafe not only helped locals grow familiar with and break down their prejudices against refugees living in Korea, but it also helped the trainees change their perspectives of Koreans as they interacted with them.

"There are certain preconceived notions that the refugees have about Koreans as well… like some of the trainees could not have even imagined Koreans smiling at and acting friendly towards them before working here," he said. "So as they worked, they also experienced getting over their own prejudices."

Naeil Coffee took in two trainees to undergo barista training and learn Korean. Courtesy of Equal Table

Then when the coronavirus outbreak hit the country in early 2020, Mun felt the need to expand his project to provide a bigger, stronger platform to help refugees integrate into Korean society.

"The cafe was doing fine. We were getting more regular customers. But a few months after the pandemic outbreak, many of the refugees who had graduated from our program lost their jobs," he said. "Then I realized that I needed to grow the business in order to provide more help for them to stand on their feet and hire more people."

After making up his mind, he closed down the cafe to establish a new company, Equal Table and jumped into a new business: low-carbon coffee.

This year, the company is aiming to roll out its first product, which is made through an eco-friendly process that results in a lower carbon footprint compared to regular coffee brands. The process includes farming and transporting coffee beans to roasting them.

It also plans to run a low-carbon coffee farm overseas with a local partner and to make use of the by-products and waste materials from the coffee-making process through upcycling.

One of the trainees brews coffee at a pop-up cafe in June 2021. Courtesy of Equal Table

Mun expressed that the new business aims to kill two birds with one stone by creating more diverse professional positions and encouraging more sustainable consumption of coffee.

"Refugees could only work as a barista (before at Naeil Coffee), so I wanted to provide more job opportunities and positions," he said.

"Recently, there has been a significantly growing number of environmental refugees, including those who come to Korea. And the reason such refugees exist is mostly because of the release of carbon into the atmosphere (which raises the planet's temperature and triggers climate change). And as I work with the refugees, I thought it would be meaningful to help solve these other refugee-related issues together."

Mun noted that he wants to develop Equal Table as a company that provides solutions to social and environmental issues.

"The meaning of our company's name is to bring people ― whether you are a refugee or a Korean, to the table equally without any discrimination ― and share different things together," he said, adding that the company's ethics to provide a platform for refugees offers social value to its consumers.

"Frankly, refugees are not accepted as members of Korean society. So I wanted them to be accepted as just another person sharing our table, whether it is to share a meal or coffee or just to talk and interact."