Today we’d like to introduce you to Shannon Stewart.
Inspiration Corporation was founded in 1989 by Lisa Nigro, a police officer who was searching for a personal response to the people she encountered on her beat. Lisa borrowed her nephew’s red wagon, filled it with coffee and sandwiches, and pulled it around the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago offering a little dignity and respect to the people she encountered. Over time, the wagon grew into a van, bus, and eventually a full-service cafe, where men and women experiencing homelessness could sit down, order off a menu and be served. In the years that followed, Inspiration Cafe expanded its services beyond simply meals, to include case management, supportive services, housing, and employment training.
In the late 1990s Inspiration Corporation began leveraging the commercial kitchen at Inspiration Cafe to provide training in the culinary industry to guests that struggled to find stable employment due to a lack of marketable skills and/or work history. The agency relied on the support of Chicago chefs and restaurant owners to develop curriculum.
The organization piloted its Foodservice Training program in 2000 and 2001, and the program began running year round in 2002. Students got hands-on experience working at Inspiration Cafe twice a week when the dining room opened for lunch to the paying public. In 2005, Inspiration Corporation opened its first Inspiration Kitchens social enterprise restaurant in Uptown to serve the public and provide work experience to students. In 2011, Inspiration Kitchens opened a second social enterprise restaurant in East Garfield Park.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Inspiration Corporation has had many ups and downs since the organization was founded. Lisa Nigro relied on the support of friends and family to do her work for the first few years of the agency’s existence, expanding her services when donations became available: a van, a school bus, a space in a church basement, and eventually a $1 lease to open the Inspiration Cafe in Uptown.
Even after the organization grew and gained a professional staff of administrators, fundraisers, and social workers, we have continued to face our share of obstacles: the original Inspiration Cafe space burned to the ground in the mid-1990s, and we were forced to close our first Inspiration Kitchens social enterprise restaurant in Uptown during the two-year long Illinois state budget stalemate.
Through it all, we have remained inspired by the determination and resiliency of the people we serve.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Inspiration Corporation – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Our organization is really defined by the two restaurants we operate.
Inspiration Corporation’s first program, Inspiration Cafe, continues to serve hot, nutritious meals to our participants in an atmosphere of dignity and respect. Our cafe is open to our participants every day of the year and operates like any other full-service restaurant in the city. More than 1,000 volunteers cook and serve meals each year, with a menu that changes each day and accommodates individual dietary preferences.
More than just a place to eat, Inspiration Cafe is a refuge from the streets where participants can connect with fellow diners, volunteers, and staff, and form a supportive community.
Located on Chicago’s west side in the East Garfield Park neighborhood, Inspiration Kitchens is our restaurant and Foodservice Training program site. Since 2001, Inspiration Kitchens has offered low-income individuals struggling to find work the opportunity to learn to cook professionally at a real restaurant open to the paying public, helping them gain the skills and experience they need to build a career in the food service industry.
Our 12-week Foodservice Training program is free to participants, and includes hands-on instruction, kitchen demonstrations, classroom culinary instruction, nutrition education, and employment and life skills classes. We also provide them with the services they need to overcome obstacles like homelessness, criminal backgrounds, mental or physical disabilities, substance addictions, and mental illness.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
After weathering the two-year long Illinois state budget stalemate, Inspiration Corporation is again thinking of ways to expand its services to Chicagoans experiencing homelessness and poverty.
Our Housing Services team reaches out directly to individuals and families experiencing homelessness on the streets and in emergency shelters, and then helps them move into a new home. We strive to help our participants increase their self-sufficiency with the ultimate goal of helping them exit poverty for good.
We work with 95 households and their landlords, administering rental subsidies paid through eight separate federal and state contracts. Our Housing Services program will be expanding in 2018 to include an additional 40 households, bringing our total to 135 formerly homeless households served.
The City of Chicago’s new Families In Transition (FIT) program provides vulnerable families experiencing homelessness who are enrolled in Chicago Public Schools with permanent supportive housing as well as case management and intensive support services. We will be assisting 15 families attending two CPS schools in Humboldt Park and Englewood (near our Inspiration Kitchens restaurant and training center).
Preservation Of Affordable Housing (POAH) is a nationwide nonprofit organization that works to preserve, create, and sustain affordable, healthy homes. They have recently expanded their housing in Chicago with the purchase of two affordable apartment buildings in Woodlawn. We will be providing case management and support services to 25 families who experienced homelessness before moving into POAH’s property.
Contact Info:
- Address: 4554 N. Broadway, Ste. 207 (Inspiration Cafe)
3504 W. Lake St. (Inspiration Kitchens) - Website: www.inspirationcorp.org; www.inspirationkitchens.org
- Phone: 773-878-0981
- Email: info@inspirationcorp.org
- Instagram: instagram.com/inspirationkitchens
- Facebook: facebook.com/inspirationcorporation
- Twitter: twitter.com/inspirationcorp
- Yelp: yelp.com/biz/inspiration-kitchens-chicago-4
Image Credit:
Steven Gross Photography
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