Koreans on a Mission to Help Latinos

At the Good Spoon's office in Annandale, with missing ceiling tiles and mismatched furniture, a large poster on the wall highlights the group's mantra: "Los Coreanos Le Aman Los Latino Americanos," or "The Koreans Love Latinos."

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To spread this message, members of the religious charity take the poster to gatherings with Hispanics, such as a soccer tournament it hosted recently in Springfield for Korean and Hispanic teams.

The group, funded by about 30 Korean churches in the Washington area, is run by Korean immigrants who had worked as missionaries in South America. They came to this area as students and to join other family members.

Three years ago, they decided to form a nonprofit to offer free meals, haircuts, Bible readings and sermons for day laborers. As more Korean-owned businesses hired Hispanic workers, the Good Spoon, with volunteers fluent in Korean and Spanish, unexpectedly found itself playing the role of workplace mediator and cultural liaison.

Its founder, Jae-Euk Kim, who spent years as a missionary in Paraguay and Venezuela, writes a weekly column in a local Korean-language newspaper, Joong-ang Ilbo, explaining Spanish expressions and Hispanic culture. The Good Spoon opened a thrift store in a predominately Hispanic area of Herndon with donations from the Korean community. Kim and pastor Young Kil Cho take complaints by Hispanic workers to Korean employers.

"We need Koreans to understand that Hispanics are our brothers and sisters and that we need them and will continue to have close relationships with them. But we also need to let Latinos know we want to help them," said Jeung-su Kim, a member of the Good Spoon.

-Cecilia Kang