Kids Cafe

Kids Cafe – The Beginning: 

 The program traces its origins to Savannah, Georgia in 1989, when two young brotherswere discovered late one night in the kitchen of their housing project’s community center.    In response to this glaring example of child hunger, the Second Harvest Food Bank started the first Kids Café.  In 1993, Feeding America launched the national Kids Café program.

In 2000, the South Texas Food Bank (STFB) along with the Laredo Housing Authority, proudly opened their first six(6) Kids Cafes.  They are located in the Laredo Housing Authority Community Centers.  Currently the STFB has opened another six(6) Kids Cafes in Rio Bravo, El  Cenizo, Larga Vista, Farm and Labor, and 2 Boys and Girls Clubs. 

Our Mission:

The Kids Cafes are here to provide free meals and snacks to low-income children through a variety of community locations where children already congregate-such as Boys and
Girls Clubs and community centers.

Our Goals:

• To feed children nutritious meals who are at-risk of hunger.
• To provide nutritional education and life skills to needy children and their parents.
• To motivate and empower the community and the public by educating them on the perils of childhood hunger and its solutions.
• To solicit support from the community and corporations.
• To keep our children and cities safe by keeping the children off the streets.

Our Services:

“Kids” 17 years of age or younger are welcome. All children are welcome to come and enjoy a hot meal as well as other activities. Activities for kids include: educational, entertaining, physical, nutritional, and safety. Tutoring is a basic component for the children as well as computer labs.  Intervention and Workshops are provided by our partners: SCAN, STACADA, the Webb County Sheriff’s Office, Texas Agriculture Extension Office, and other nonprofits.

There are no economic/income guidelines or restrictions and no applications are needed.

NO ONE IS TURNED AWAY!

Hot meals: Monday – Friday between 3:30p.m. – 5:00 p.m. (times can vary)

Our food is donated from community donors and the regular inventory from the South Texas Food Bank.  It is either cooked in house at Rio Bravo, El Cenizo, Larga Vista, and the Main Boys and Girls Club.  Bethany House cooks the meals for the 7 Housing Authority Kids Cafes and Laredo Job Corps Culinary Class cooks the meals for the Lamar Bruni Vergara Big Red Boys and Girls Club.

KIDS CAFE SITES  

•  Ana M. Lozano Community Center Kids Cafe(6500 Springfield)
• Carlos Richter Community Center Kids Café (1600 Circle Dr.)
• Guadalupe Housing Community Center Kids Café (2000 San Francisco)
• Meadow Acres Housing Community Center Kids Café (1641 Elm)
• South Laredo Housing Community Center Kids Cafe(3501 S. Arkansas)
• Russell Terrace Housing Community Center Kids Café (500 Richter)
• Farm and Labor Community Center Kids Café (2201 Saltillo)
• El Cenizo Community Center Kids Café (3519 Cecilia)
• Larga Vista Community Center Kids Café (5401 Larga Vista Dr.)
• Rio Bravo Community Center Kids Cafe (1600 Orquidia)
• John Roman and Zoe Zelin Benavides Boys and Girls Club Kids Café (500 Moctezuma)
• Lamar Bruni Vergara Big Red Kids Café (3900 Los Presidentes)

Someone that is younger then you in Laredo is going to bed hungry.  We have 12 Kids Café that really need your help.  Become a Godparent to one of our Kids Cafes, sponsor a meal, a holiday, or sponsor a site.

You can sponsor/start your own Kids Cafes:

With a donation of $20,000, you can sustain a café for one year.  You can even start your own café with a donation of $25,000.  In addition, with a donation of $12,500, you can buy naming rights and even name a Kids Café after yourself or a loved one.

You can voluteer at any of our Kids Cafe locations as a tutor, server, or even help with activities.
(Volunteers are always welcome, we can always use an extra pair of hands to help with preparations of food, activities, etc.)

You can even belong to an “adopt a cafe’” group and help sustain a kids cafe, and provide it with your own volunteers.

Fast Facts

Kids Cafe is the most expansive child-feeding program in the nation
There are over 1,700 established Kids Cafes in operation
Over 12 million children live in food insecure households

Need more information? Contact:

Gloria Jackson at the South Texas Food Bank (956)-726-3120

Or e-mail her at gjackson@southtexasfoodbank.org