Kids Cafe

One in six Rhode Island children currently grows up in a home where their parents struggle to put food on the table.

In Rhode Island, Kids Cafe serves wholesome evening meals to children at risk of hunger, supplementing the federal School Breakfast and School Lunch programs. Kids Cafe is currently feeding over 500 children at 10 sites in Providence and Newport:

• Fox Point Boys & Girls Club
• Hartford Park Boys & Girls Club
• Boys & Girls Club of Providence at Chad Brown
• Sackett Street Recreational Center 
• South Side Boys & Girls Club
• Wanskuck Boys & Girls Club
• Boys & Girls Club of Providence at Manton Heights
• West End Community Center

• Central Clubhouse of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Newport County
• Park Holm Boys & Girls Club of Newport County

Meals for Kids Cafe are prepared by the Food Bank’s Community Kitchen program. Community Kitchen is a culinary training program that prepares unemployed adults for employment in the food service industry.

Program History

Ten years ago, two young brothers were discovered, alone and after hours, eating fruit and drinking milk in a Savannah, GA community center. They broke in looking for food to fill their hungry stomachs. When presented with this urgent need, local government and food bank officials joined forces to open the nation’s first soup kitchen just for children. Kids Cafe, which aims to feed at-risk children a nutritious evening meal, was developed from this effort.

Today

Kids Cafe is now a program of Feeding America, the national network of more than 200 food banks. Locally, the Rhode Island Community Food Bank developed a partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs and Community Centers address the food needs of club members. Many of the children arrive at the clubs after school and are not picked up until later in the evening, missing dinner because their parents are working. Others may not receive an evening meal because their families are not able to provide one.