The House of Bread is undertaking an effort to double the size of our kitchen located on Chestnut Street, co-locating Kids Cafe and the Soup Kitchen, with an overall increase in the size of the building of close to 60%.

The expansion program will allow us to work toward three main goals:

• Position Kids Cafe for a vision of "No child goes to bed hungry in Hartford"  
• Re-launch the training program FEAST that builds restaurant-ready kitchen skills, obtains food safety certification and improves employability  
• Pursue social entrepreneurship opportunities such as catering to employ FEAST graduates and others  

Our third goal is new: to directly create employment opportunities for our FEAST graduates to facilitate their transition from student to employee. Our vision is to leverage our core strength in food preparation into the world of catering, though options for farmers’ markets are also under consideration. This endeavor has minimal risk from a financial standpoint and significant upside potential for the FEAST graduates and The House of Bread. The financial risk is minimal in that we would use the existing capacity of the new, expanded kitchen, preparing meals in off-peak times. The kitchen and associated utilities being the single largest non-direct (non-food) cost for a catering business. This is our vision: create jobs and long-term employability.

Our primary objective is to complete the expansion project while maintaining our Soup Kitchen, Day Shelter and Thrift Store services. Kids Cafe will remain at it's rented kitchen until construction is complete. After operations are "back to normal," we will pursue our social entrepreneurship vision.

If you are interested in financially supporting this project, please contact us.