Getting started: Cafe Momentum Pittsburgh aims to give youth more than a job
Gene Walker knows the road to success has many stops and starts. Consider his path to become executive director of Cafe Momentum Pittsburgh, the soon-to-open nonprofit restaurant and professional training facility in Downtown that gives juvenile offenders a second chance. The East Liberty native graduated from Peabody High School and studied accounting at Bloomsburg University. For […]
Café Momentum restaurant coming to Nashville in 2023; how it’s already changing lives of justice-involved youth
by: Sierra Rains NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — On any given day, Cameron Carver might be found preparing braised short ribs or pan-roasted scallops for people dinning in downtown Nashville; but four years ago, his life looked very different. At the age of 15, Carver said he dropped out of school to take care of his mother […]
Edible Nashville Fall Farm Dinner helping teens cook up a better future
FRANKLIN, Tenn. (WTVF) — Edible Nashville is hosting its Fall Farm Dinner benefit Friday and Saturday and tickets are still available. The dinner is held three times a year, celebrating local farms and benefiting a different nonprofit. This weekend’s dinner will benefit Cafe Momentum, a program that trains young people who have been through the […]
Southern Smoke brings together top chefs for their three-day festival this weekend
Chris Shepherd and Chef Chad Houser with Cafe Momentum discuss their roles in changing communities for the better HOUSTON — Chris Shepherd‘s Southern Smoke Festival takes place this Friday through Sunday, with the country’s best chefs, live music, tastiest food, and fantastic wine, beer, and cocktails. The three-day event will raise funds and awareness for food […]
Changing Lives Through Culinary Skills
Richard King Mellon Foundation 2021 Annual Report Café Momentum comes to Pittsburgh to help young people move from the criminal-justice system to self-sufficiency. TRISTYN WILLIAMS was 15, pregnant and living in a juvenile rehabilitation center in Texas. The world was closing in on her, and there seemed to be no way forward. She was also […]
Hidden Pearls Podcast – Cafe Momentum – Chad Houser with Emma & Bruce Kittle
In this episode, we go deep into an exploration of how a successful Executive Chef, with over 17 years in the food industry and who had achieved his own dream of owning a 5 Star restaurant, had an awakening while working with some kids in a local juvenile justice center teaching them how to make […]
How the Broncos supported youth coming out of the juvenile justice system by hosting Café Momentum
DENVER — Anyone who attended this year’s Taste of the Broncos presented by King Soopers would tell you that the event was a smashing success. On the grass lawn just outside Empower Field at Mile High, players, fans and community members mingled under the warm glow of string lights. As the crowd danced along to lively […]
Chad Houser gives formerly incarcerated youths a path to stability
The Café Momentum model is spreading across the country from Dallas, offering job training and support to 15-19-year-olds Three years ago, Cameron Carver was 15 and coming out of the juvenile justice program in Nashville, Tenn., after being incarcerated. He needed to help provide for his family, he said. “But I didn’t know how to […]
Fine dining restaurant geared to help teens set to open in Pittsburgh
Source. Cafe Momentum, a fine dining restaurant designed to help teens who have been part of the criminal justice system, is scheduled to open in downtown Pittsburgh in August. The restaurant was created in Dallas seven years ago by Chad Houser.”Over the last seven years we worked with over 1,000 youth,” Houser said. Cafe Momentum […]
