All Youth Deserve To Dream
We create opportunities for justice-involved youth through an ever-expanding network of award-winning non-profit restaurants and training programs. Youth, ages 15–19, gain industry skills and a strong support system. Restaurants alone can’t transform the juvenile justice system, but they can reshape communities and futures—one meal, one person at a time.
Learn more about our model
Our Impact
Our justice system can be very messy, especially when it comes to the way it works (or doesn’t) for young people.
Despite reforms, youth incarceration remains a critical issue in the United States, which continues to have the highest youth confinement rates among developed nations. As of the most recent data, approximately 36,500 youth under age 18 are detained in juvenile facilities on any given day, a significant decrease from prior years. However, disparities and systemic challenges persist. Around 200 children under age 12 are confined annually, and some youth are still held in adult facilities, despite reforms aimed at reducing this practice.
Our Mission
Café Momentum's mission is to transform young lives by equipping our communities' justice-involved youth with life skills, education and employment opportunities to help them achieve their full potential.
Transforming Lives
A Decade of Hope, Growth and Impact
For 10 years, Café Momentum has empowered justice-involved youth to dream big, rewrite their stories and build brighter futures. With nearly 1,700 lives transformed, our work proves the power of community and opportunity.
Watch Tristyn and Chad’s story and see how your support fuels the next chapter.
10 Years of Momentum: A Bold New Vision
Today marks a momentous milestone for Café Momentum: 10 years of transforming lives, breaking down stigma and proving what’s possible when we invest in opportunity for our youth.
10 Years of Cafe Momentum
Events
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July 17, 2026 | Atlanta
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August 2, 2026 | Dallas
In the News
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July 8, 2026 | IGNITE
Ignite Newsletter: 2026 July
By Tristyn, Café Momentum Ambassador Fellow There’s something nobody prepares you for about returning home, truly returning, not just stepping through a doorway. It’s the burden of proving your worth in a world that already judged you before you arrived. I know that burden intimately. I’ve dragged it into job interviews, into meetings with hiring […]
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June 16, 2026 | Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Pittsburgh
Chef Chad Houser Is Helping Formerly Incarcerated Teens Gain Opportunity—And Momentum
by Derek Rose Source link: https://time.com/collection/visionaries/2026/chad-houser/ In 2025, chef Chad Houser, founder and CEO of Café Momentum, was driving in his home city of Dallas when he received a call that made it difficult to focus on the road. On the other end was Dawn Padmore, vice president of awards at the James Beard Foundation, who […]
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June 3, 2026 | IGNITE
Ignite Newsletter: 2026 June
By Tristyn, Café Momentum Ambassador Fellow There is a conversation that does not get nearly enough airtime, and this month we are making space for it. Economic opportunity. Not as a talking point or a policy footnote but as something deeply personal. I have felt both its presence and its absence, and both have changed […]
Our manifesto
Dreams are the ink with which we write our stories
We learn to dream the moment we take our first steps: We’re told we can go anywhere, do anything, be anyone. That we’re limited only by what we dare to imagine, and how hard we’re willing to work for it. But for some of us, there are limits. Some of us don’t get to write our own stories.
Read full manifesto
