Innovation Kitchen in the Café Momentum Flagship on the Meadows Foundation Campus
Equipping Justice-Involved Youth with Life Skills, Education, and Employment Opportunities
The Committment: $1,250,000
Café Momentum provides justice-involved youth with paid culinary internships and wraparound services including workforce development, education, case management, and mental health care. This community-based intervention model has a strong success rate in helping youth break the cycle of recidivism and equipping them with the life skills, education, and support they need to regain confidence, graduate from high school, and embark on a path where they are less likely to reoffend. Having outgrown its downtown Dallas location, Café Momentum is constructing a new flagship facility on the Meadows Foundation Campus in the Wilson Historic District just east of downtown. The new building will include a fine-dining restaurant and a community service center to house case manager offices, counseling space, and the Café Momentum high school.
Crystal Charity will fund construction of an open-concept innovation kitchen to serve as the heart of the new Café Momentum facility. At 4,300 square feet, the restaurant kitchen will enable hands-on training experiences, food handler certifications, and professional skill development for 125 high school aged interns on an annual basis.
