This GivingTuesday, we are raising much-needed funds to rebuild Café James, the student-run café inside Kennedy Krieger High School.
We are excited to share that every donation to rebuild Café James will be matched two-to-one, up to the first $80,000 donated. This means your gift today will be tripled!
This year's generous matching gift is made possible by two anonymous donors who believe every Kennedy Krieger student deserves a kitchen that matches their determination.
It Is Not a Class About Work. It Is Work.
Café James is a working café inside Kennedy Krieger High School, certified by Baltimore City and run entirely by students. They plan the menu, prep the food, cook it, serve it, work the register and close the place down at the end of the day.
Six classes rotate through that kitchen every school day. Monday is instruction. Tuesday is prep and bake day. Wednesday through Friday, the café opens for business.
Café James opened in 2008, named for James Lewis, a Kennedy Krieger student from elementary through high school. His mother painted the mural that still anchors the room today. Nearly two decades later, every student who works in that space builds skills, confidence and independence, but the space itself hasn't kept up with the students it serves.
What Students Build
Every shift behind the counter at Café James teaches a skill that leaves with a student on graduation day. Here's what your gift helps build:
- Real workplace skills that transfer straight into a first job, from knife safety to food handling to temperature control.
- The confidence to work a register, handle a rush and fix a mistake in front of a customer.
- Financial literacy through Bulldog Bucks, turning earning, budgeting and spending into everyday life skills.
- A work history and a pathway to employment, built one shift at a time.
Why Our Need Is Urgent
Café James's kitchen is nearly two decades old, and it hasn't kept pace with the number of students it now serves or the standards of the jobs they're training for. Rebuilding it means our students learn on the same equipment they'll use in the workplaces they're headed toward, from day one. We are looking for generous donors to help us give Café James its next chapter.
Your donation today will help us rebuild Café James into a professional learning environment that matches our students' determination, and prepares them for the interviews, the first shifts and the futures they're building toward.
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