OUR STORY

4HOME began as a simple passion project.

In March 2025, at Hangzhou CIS, we were participating in our school’s Beyond Project—a program designed to encourage students to explore their interests beyond the classroom. Like many students, we turned to what we loved most: food. Our initial idea was lighthearted—rating and sharing food experiences on Instagram.

But it quickly became clear that passion alone wasn’t enough. Our project was challenged by our teachers for lacking meaningful community impact, prompting a deeper question: How could food be more than content?

That question led us to Shanghai.

Instead of focusing on mainstream dining, we began seeking out restaurants representing underrepresented countries and cultures. What started as curiosity became connection. Through conversations with restaurant owners, cooks, and community members, food revealed itself as something far more powerful—a vessel for memory, migration, identity, and belonging.

This experience changed everything.

We realized that behind every dish was a story of home—often untold, often unseen. Food wasn’t just something to rate; it was something to listen to.

Inspired by this shift, 4HOME was founded in May 2025 as a student-led initiative dedicated to building belonging through food storytelling. Today, 4HOME documents personal food narratives, and is working to host free community cooking workshops. Our end goal is to create a pop-up kitchen that brings people together through shared meals and stories.

What began as a school assignment became a movement rooted in empathy, culture, and community—one dish at a time.