Since Oct. 7, Asif has focused on supporting frontline soldiers and families impacted by the war, while also bolstering the local culinary community. Asif is a non-profit organization and culinary center in Tel Aviv, dedicated to cultivating and nurturing Israel’s diverse and creative food culture.
ASIF’s Follow the Food initiative, which began in April, has been supporting food tours around Israel by raising money to sponsor free tours with Israel’s top independent tour guides. As a result, it has breathed life into Israel’s economy, tourism and food/restaurant industry.
“We’re talking about 20 tours every week, for months, so it’s a real financial boost for them,” ASIF CEO Chico Menashe told The Journal. “At Asif, we believe food has the power to connect, nourish and heal; food is an essential part of our personal resilience, but also the national resilience.”
There’s an added benefit.
“With Follow the Food, we are providing respite for the partners of soldiers in the field by enabling them to go on food tours across many regions in Israel,” Menashe said. Almost 4,000 soldiers’ partners have already participated.
“To be able to bring them several hours of distraction while simultaneously lifting up the food tour guides and businesses who need our support feels like a win all around,” Menashe said. “It’s a three-way impact project: the women’s wellbeing, the businesses economical condition and the tour guides financial survival.”
Menashe said ASIF’s initiative is practically the only one that is accessible in scale, diversity and quality to soldiers’ partners all over the country. And it’s entirely free.
“We see a group of women doing our tours at the Haredi food spots in Jerusalem, and on such a tour we see settlers from Judea and Samaria, sitting down with Tel Aviv and Beer Sheva wives that registered for that tour in Jerusalem,” he said. “They meet each other for the first time: Magic happens there.
“They’re all being exposed to culinary culture they have never before encountered, doing their shopping in stores they have never visited and always declaring they plan to come back,” he continued. “In some of the stops they sit down to eat together and find themselves in a natural support group of women that are in their same situation.”
The tour business owners are also seeing the benefits.
For instance, Michal David, who was born and raised in Tel Aviv, is a tour guide, artist, baker and mother of two. She leads vibrant and delicious culinary tours through Tel Aviv’s bustling markets, showcasing the flavors and stories that make the city special.
“This year has been incredibly challenging,” David told The Journal. “As a tour guide, my business has slowed to almost a complete stop.”
At home, David remains sole parent to her 6- and 3-year-old children, while her husband has served 250 days in Gaza and Lebanon this year.
“Joining Asif’s project, guiding women like me who are facing tough circumstances and bringing life back to the markets through tours, has been a true highlight and an incredible privilege,” she said.
Adi Rozen is a resident of Netiv HaAsara in southern Israel and owner of the culinary tour company “Culinary Story.” Rozen continues to promote her unique culinary tours, despite her husband being on reserve duty most of the time since Oct. 7 and her family still being evacuated.
Rozen’s tours, which take place in Sderot, Ashkelon, Arad, Kiryat Malachi, Ashdod and Netivot, offer participants a chance to experience the magic of the south through flavors, stories and heartfelt encounters with locals.
“Joining such a tour isn’t just about enjoying good food,” Rozen told the Journal. “It’s about discovering a rich culture, supporting local businesses, giving reserve soldiers’ families a breath of fresh air and connecting with remarkable people.”
“Joining such a tour isn’t just about enjoying good food … It’s about discovering a rich culture, supporting local businesses, giving reserve soldiers’ families a breath of fresh air and connecting with remarkable people.” – Adi Rozen
At the beginning, ASIF thought the “Follow the Food” tours would be a nice benefit, but still wanted to check its impact before moving forward.
“The reactions we got from the participants were overwhelming to us,” Menashe said. “Hundreds of women sent us personal messages telling us, ‘It’s the first time during the last three months that someone got me out of the house, from my three kids, I needed that air; I feel someone really thought about my wellbeing.’”
Now, thoughts are to expand it, making this project accessible not only to soldiers’ partners, but to every Israeli.
“It educates people on our unique food culture, which unites Israelis, while getting needed support to the culinary ecosystem,” Menashe said. “I plan to have vans getting out of Israeli workplaces every day, travelling to the north and south with their employees, to take part in this mission; now I only need to find the right partners for us that will want to join our journey and support it.”
If ASIF succeeds in raising the needed funds, they hope to keep doing these tours next year and scale it to an even higher level.
“Our dream is to be a part of the even wider national mission: to rehabilitate the north and the south,” Menashe said. “Our part in this mission is to do it through strengthening the small food businesses in these areas.”
