Cafe Reconcile

"Who says God can't provide redemption through fried catfish and collard greens?"

By Patrick Johnson

Listen to this Commentary!

Youth Radio’s Patrick Johnson reports from New Orleans on life after Hurricance Katrina. During his visit to the city, Patrick talked to young people from Cafe Reconcile, a non-profit employment training program located in one of the most violent neighborhoods in New Orleans. This organization is holding its own in some of the city’s most competitive industries post Katrina...and helping transform the city's social landscape.

PATRICK
When you walk inside Café Reconcile, you’re greeted by a warm “hey baby!” Soul is the primary ingredient in Café Reconcile’s food and founder Craig Cuccia says it’s been that way from the beginning.

CRAIG (on tape)
I'm a life long New Orleanian and the idea of Café Reconcile was born out of spiritual adventure.

Patrick: Not an adventure sparked at a business conference...but instead from Cuccia’s time with a Jesuit priest. Who says God can't provide redemption through fried catfish and collard greens?

Café Reconcile is doing just that, with six week training sessions in cooking and restaurant management, and heaping portions of soul food. All in one of New Orleans most violent neighborhoods – central city.

Seventeen-year old Jeffery Vannor is currently department chef in the Café. He dreams of going to Culinary school. Before Jeffrey came here, he was cooking eggs and pancakes.

JEFFERY (on tape)
But now I'm cooking shrimp etouffee and crawfish pasta and smothered okra and collard greens...

PATRICK
The point was to get kids off the street and into the hospitality industry.

CRAIG (on tape)
We had some really good food at some really good prices and the business just took off, and we were able to train over 300 kids up until Hurricane Katrina.

PATRICK
Over a year later, many of those kids are coming back to Café Reconcile looking for jobs. Head Chef Jeron Smith, who calls himself “Chef Joe” used to be a drug dealer making plenty of money.

JOE (on tape)
As fast as I was making it, I was blowing it. When I started working here – I started at six fifty an hour. I did more with that six fifty an hour than I did with all the money I made standing on the corner!

PATRICK
Chef Joe says Café Reconcile is helping improve the city in an unconventional way. The program is catching kids before they get too deep into the street life by using a technique that works well with teens – peer pressure. Each success story started by giving one kid a good job.

CRAIG (on tape)
Their friends would start them doing good, then their friends came. That took a lot of people off the corner. That's how we do it, one corner at a time.

PATRICK
And slowly but surely, Café Reconcile is transforming the lives of young people and the neighborhood surrounding them.