FIRST SLICE PIE CAFÉ
From
an article by Judy Hevrdejs of the Chicago Tribune:
Sometimes you need to feed the soul. And sometimes feeding others salads of local greens and fresh tomatoes, maybe spinach-squash lasagna and chocolate-peanut butter pie does just that, especially for the cook. Just ask chef Mary Ellen Diaz whose desire to give back led her to create First Slice, a self-funded charity to feed the needy and homeless, more than a decade ago.
She was on a leave of absence from Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises when she began volunteering at soup kitchens, stirring her culinary experience into the meals. “It only took one night of making meals amazing for people in need and seeing the smiles that made me realize I could do something here,” Diaz said.
First Slice today funds its three-café effort with a “shareholders program,” with some 100 subscriber families receiving home-cooked, restaurant-quality meals weekly. Funds from those subscriptions are used to make the same quality meals for people in need. Community volunteers, working with First Slice staff, serve often 300-plus needy and homeless each week through several social service organizations, such as Streetwise.
In the past several years, a small job training program has been added. “It’s not 12 people sitting around a table learning to sauté a chicken breast. It’s a few people sautéing hundreds of chicken breasts,” says Diaz. “We’ve always thought about our food as being a magnet for our services. If people know that there’s a great meal waiting for them at an organization, they are much more likely to come and get the services needed.”
