About Us
We provide exceptional South Indian and Sri Lankan food and pickles made by women from these communities who relocated to the UK due to the conflict in Sri Lanka.

Our story
In 2013 Abi, a Founder of Papi’s Pickles, met many women who relocated to the UK, especially London, during and after the conflict in Sri Lanka. The isolation and sense of loss experienced within these communities was extreme and despite a desire to work, there was little opportunity to be found.
Cooking, food and community remained a happy memory from home and research showed a significant demand for South Indian and Sri Lankan cuisine, particularly made from high quality ingredients, so Papi’s Pickles was born!
Female refugees and migrant workers remain a marginalised group in society, and employment is core to the process of integration, which is where we step in. Since 2015, we are proud to say that Papi’s Pickles has recruited and trained twenty long-term unemployed women, and we are a London Living Wage employer.

Our impact
We provide women from South Indian and Sri Lankan communities with access to an income, support, confidence-building opportunities, English Language skills and food safety certification, alongside the invaluable impacts that arise from participating in meaningful employment.
Between 2015 and 2019, we:
– Paid over £85,000 in London Living Wage salaries
– Created 8,800 hours of work
– Delivered over 7,000 hours of training
– Provided employment for twenty women

Ruby's story
Ruby has lived in the UK for over twelve years, after leaving Sri Lanka during the conflict. Ruby has two young children and her husband often works away from London. Prior to working with Papi’s Pickles she was struggling to find employment for a number of years, especially due to unaffordable childcare costs during the school holidays.
We recruited Ruby through the Tamil Community Centre in Hounslow where she was seeking support. Ruby’s three years of employment with Papi’s Pickles were transformative due to the income, training, support and confidence provided. Ruby was the head chef at our brunch collaboration with the Conflict Café in 2016, an event that was profiled in the Evening Standard, Hello magazine, the Londonist and Homemade. Ruby currently works as a beautician in London.