Asbury Park Cafe Serves Up More Than Food

A small cafe in Asbury Park is not only serving up reasonably priced lunches.  They are also offering valuable training for young adults, itching to enter or re-enter the workforce.

Interfaith Neighbors is proud to announce the grand opening of its latest community project the Kula Café located at 1201 Springwood Avenue in Asbury Park.

The Kula Café is a welcoming neighborhood eatery where customers can come and have great food at a fair price.  Perhaps more important, at its heart, the Kula Café is a training program which teaches unemployed and underemployed individuals age 18 or above the skills needed to work in the burgeoning restaurant industry in Asbury Park and local Jersey shore town with the ultimate goal of placing program graduates in jobs that can sustain them financially.

In addition, because the Kula Café Training program will operate in a working café  where all profit will be put back into the training program, each meal served helps fund future participants in the program while helping the current participants learn and master their skills.

The Kula Café program includes four weeks of life and employment skills training, eight weeks of hands on training in the Kula Cafe, and a final four weeks of paid placement in a partnering restaurant where participants can demonstrate the skills they have mastered in the  program.  The café will be open 11:30 to 4:00 Monday through Friday, and will offer take out service and catering on- and off-site.

Interfaith Neighbors is a not-for-profit, 501(c) 3 corporation that assists families through programs that help meet basic nutrition, housing, and educational needs. Formed in 1988 through a coalition of Monmouth County churches and synagogues, our focus on "Neighbors  Helping Neighbors" includes programs that provide home ownership opportunities, community revitalization, rental and mortgage assistance, nutrition, business development services and support for at-risk youth. Approximately ninety-seven cents out of every dollar contributed to our agency goes directly to assist those they serve.

For more information, call 732-455-0514 or visit kulacafe.org/