Kids Cafe is a program of the Rhode Island Community Food Bank and is a registered trademark of Feeding America, a national network of more than 200 food banks.
Feeding America developed the Kids Cafe model in 1993 and the Food Bank launched its first Kids Cafe sites in 1998.
Kids Cafe creates partnerships with community organizations that assist the Food Bank in providing supplemental evening meals to children at-risk of hunger.
The program promotes healthy eating habits by providing nutritious meals and nutrition education. The program works with our partner sites to tend to the emotional, educational, and physical well-being of the children served. The intent of Kids Cafe is to alleviate hunger among children in a community setting.
Kids Cafe participants receive a delicious dinner giving them energy to focus, concentrate, and play until it’s time for them to go home in the evening.
The Food Bank’s culinary nutrition team develops a monthly menu, which is shared with the Kids Cafe partner sites and parents. This menu offers a variety of wholesome foods made fresh daily by our chefs and dinners include all of the components of a healthy and well balanced meal. The menu is also developed with the kids input. Each day, kids are asked about the meal and vote for which foods they like, and the selected favorites remain on the menu for the following month. Kids Cafe participants are encouraged to try new things through our on-site nutrition education programming, which is offered alongside the meal service.
One mom explained, “Kids Cafe helps feed my son after school, this is especially helpful when I am not able to buy food because other bills are due.”
Kids Cafe currently prepares and delivers approximately 400 meals a day.
