Charity Spotlight: Liberty’s Kitchen
The café and espresso bar operated by Liberty’s Kitchen not only serves nutritious food and gourmet coffee, it also offers a menu of career development and education for disadvantaged youth throughout the Greater New Orleans Metropolitan area.
Liberty’s Kitchen is a nonprofit organization that empowers youth aged 16-20 through on-the-job training, classroom instruction, and individual case management and job placement services.
The MDRT Foundation awarded a $5,000 grant to Liberty’s Kitchen to help fund their youth development program, which trains at-risk youth to become productive members of their communities through education and employment training. This grant was sponsored by MDRT Executive Committee member Julian H. Good Jr., CLU, ChFC, a 26-year MDRT member and Diamond Knight of New Orleans, Louisiana.
Many of the youth served by Liberty’s Kitchen have been affected by poverty, homelessness, drug and alcohol abuse and criminal activity. Youth are recommended to the program through social workers, court advocates and concerned family members. Once approved, all participants are required to commit a full-time schedule to the program. Liberty’s Kitchen has found that their recipe for success includes an intensive program centered on employment and leadership training, culinary management training, and individual case management to address social and educational and career goals.
As a social enterprise, all of the profits from Liberty’s Kitchen’s café and espresso bar are used to fund the expenses of running the organization and the youth development program. Upon completion of the 12-week intensive program, Liberty’s Kitchen provides students with one-year of support to ensure continued success and job placement.
