Rounding Out a Square Meal

Feeding the hungry is one of the oldest missions in the charity world. But a growing number of nonprofit groups are also finding ways to fill more than stomachs while serving meals to those too poor to feed themselves.

Take Chicago’s Kids Cafe program, for example. While serving 500 schoolchildren a hot meal when their classes are done, the eight cafes match kids with tutoring, arts and crafts, computer classes, and a host of other activities in a curiosity-nurturing environment.

Located in neighborhoods where up to 35 percent of all those who need free meals are children, the Kids Cafes are run at the neighborhood level, with an eye toward giving the kids what they want as well as what they need. While one center boasts “rhythm” classes, another features a chorus, and another a theater.

The first Kids Cafe was opened in 1993 by the Greater Chicago Food Depository as part of a project run by America’s Second Harvest, a national nonprofit association of food banks. The Food Depository, the local food pantry for Chicago’s poor, opened the doors to two more by the end of the 1990’s.

The program’s success, matched with an infusion of $130,000 in cash from individuals and corporations in the past two years, has swelled its ranks. Five more cafes were opened in March, and seven more will be added later this year.

Fund raising hasn’t been a problem. “If we wanted to open a bunch more, there’s no question we could,” says Kate Maehr, the Food Depository’s director of development. “This is probably the sexiest program we have. We could raise $500,000 if we wanted to.”

Here, youngsters work on their cookie-baking skills.