Bordering the Superdome and the skyscrapers, hotels, and office buildings that form the financial and retail district of New Orleans is one of the worst slums in the city. Bankers label this area not merely low income, but highly distressed low income. Drug dealers and prostitutes who conduct their business from corner pay phones control the streets. If those who run their illicit businesses don’t want you in the neighborhood, they simply burn down your building.

Father Harry Thompson, S.J., decided to do something about the situation. Father Thompson, who died in 2001, had been president of a large ­Jesuit high school and wanted to devote the last years of his life to significant ministries in the inner city.

He joined a group of like-minded souls, who had no trouble finding evidence that a multitude of young lives, smothered by poverty and want, were spiraling into destructive behaviors. The group set out to establish a safe and supportive place where at-risk youth would have an opportunity to learn the skills necessary to become productive individuals.

Craig Cuccia, cofounder and director of capital projects for Café Reconcile, was one of the members of this group who shared Father Thompson’s vision for helping the poor. Cuccia’s first step was to befriend the people who lived in the section of the inner city where he and Father Thompson felt God was calling them to serve. A man dressed in a distinctive white tuxedo and red tie came to the neighborhood every day to sell coffee and doughnuts. Cuccia struck up a friendship with the coffee entrepreneur, and they began selling snow cones to kids who came, seemingly out of nowhere, to buy them. These children, although usually invisible, increased the group’s understanding of who actually lived in the neighborhood. Father Thompson’s group eventually purchased a building and started Kids Café, a place where young people and others in the neighborhood could enjoy a normal Saturday-night dining experience.

The planning group, however, wanted to provide more than a soup kitchen. They envisioned a program that would give young people the skills needed to find and keep jobs. This vision—to have a place where young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two could gain the skills and self-discipline necessary for employment—led to the opening of Café Reconcile in 2000. Well-trained food-service workers are always in demand in New Orleans, where tourism is a main source of income.


Café Reconcile trains about ninety young people a year, offering nine-week cycles of classes in every facet of the restaurant business. Abandoned by their parents, the kids who come to Reconcile are the most vulnerable in society. They wander the streets begging, stealing, and becoming victims of abuse. Some learn about Reconcile through residential drug programs, others through word of mouth. A friend might tell them, “Your life is a mess. You’re selling drugs on the corner and you really need help.

Why don’t you go to Café Reconcile?”

More than fifty young people apply for the ten openings in each of the nine-week sessions. Four or five kids ask to be admitted to the program each day. Two of those five prospective students are walk-ins off the street. About forty people are on the waiting list.

Sister Mary Lou Specha, PBVM, executive director of Café Reconcile, describes one young man currently in the program: “He has a high school diploma. That in itself is unusual since 90 to 95 percent of those at Reconcile have dropped out of school. But he reads at the third-grade level. He was scared to death to go out on the floor to take food orders because of his poor reading skills. He quit his last job because everybody made fun of him, telling him he was stupid. He kept his handicap well hidden, but he has lived with that secret his whole life.”

Café Reconcile gives hardened street kids—even those with a criminal history—a sense of accom­p­lishment. Many have experienced horrific violence, and it’s not unusual for a student participating in the program during the week to have been incarcerated by Monday morning. One week, four students in the program were imprisoned. One student had been shot eight times by the time he came to Reconcile.

 “You have to understand the background these kids come from,” Sister Mary Lou said. “Many have left a home torn by drugs and abuse. They’ve gained the affection and approval of all the wrong people. Their moral code is to survive by whatever means they can. We’re discouraged when any of our kids drops out, but we can’t leave them in the slums to fail. We want to inspire young people and get them off the streets and into a safe environment. We want them to succeed.”
Many of the young people who come to Café Reconcile have no stability in their lives. They live with one relative for two or three days, then with another relative for a few more days. Some are living in rental units, others live with single parents, and others live in shelters. Many have a history of drug abuse.

 “We expect them to test positive for drugs when they arrive,” Sister Mary Lou said. “But we try to get them into counseling and drug-prevention classes, and we try to show them a much better way to live. It’s amazing how successful they can be with very little training.”


One of Café Reconcile’s success stories is Doris. When Doris was eight years old, she often came to Kids Café, where she found people who cared about her and wanted something better for her. But Doris and her brother faced the harsh realities of an unpredictable and violent family. Her mother was on drugs, and Doris never knew her father. The State of Louisiana placed Doris and her brother with foster parents.

At seventeen, Doris decided she was tired of living in group homes and ran away to San Antonio, Texas. Her instincts to survive on her own overwhelmed any temptation to trust another person to care for her. For a year she lived in Texas with the father of her baby, but she always planned to come back to New Orleans.

Doris did return to New Orleans and entered the program. She found people she would learn to trust the day she walked into Café Reconcile. With her new child, she had to live for more than just herself. She worked hard, finished her GED, and was able to save enough money to move out of the foster home and into her own apartment.

Doris is now employed by Café Reconcile as a floor supervisor. She ensures that everything runs smoothly, that orders are taken correctly, that waiters approach customers in a friendly manner, that conflict is dealt with appropriately, and that patrons are pleased with the food and the service.

“Café Reconcile has been my guardian angel,” said Doris. “God brought me here to make me realize I’m not the only person with problems. But I have to deal with my problems in an appropriate manner and not turn to drugs, prostitution, and violence.”

Sister Mary Lou told Doris that Café Reconcile is not the end for her. “We don’t want to hold you here for the rest of your life. This is not your career. We just want to boost you up a little.”

Doris, now twenty years old, has grown into a lovely, graceful, and talented woman. Although she hesitated to return to school for fear of failing, she is now enrolled in a nursing program. She knows the world has much to offer, and she has a bolder vision of what the future holds. Doris is a wonderful example of how a desperate young woman of the streets can have a chance at a new life.

During the nine-week program at Café Reconcile, the trainees acquire skills in five different areas of restaurant work. They serve as hosts or hostesses and as table servers. They work with the executive chef on all the main dishes, including traditional New Orleans red beans and rice, sausage, and chicken. They also work with the sous-chef, who makes side dishes such as macaroni and cheese and vegetables, and with the person who makes the salads and desserts.

The food is classic New Orleans, that unbelievably delicious mixture of French and Spanish cuisines. Everything is fresh and made from scratch each day. The students also work with the steward, washing dishes and cleaning up. Each area has a mentor who works one-on-one with the students.

Lunch is served cafe­teria style from 11:00 am until 2:00 pm, and the tables are filled the entire time. The restaurant is packed with city workers, downtown executives, clergy, and elected officials, and there is usually a wait to be seated. The Café is unique in its appeal to such a cross section of races and economic status.

The day begins at 8:00 am with a prayer session. This is Sister Mary Lou’s favorite time of the day. Although Reconcile is a Christian-based organization, non-Christians are invited to participate. Following prayer, breakfast is served, along with a side order of discussion. Within an atmosphere of trust, students articulate their concerns and try to come up with solutions to the problems they face.

The daily routine continues until 4:00 pm. Programs have been set up to help dropouts finish high school. The students are also taught financial literacy, parenting skills, communication skills, and conflict resolution.

Above all, the Café offers a place of loving support where young people know they are safe. One student said, “The only time I feel safe is when I’m here between eight and four o’clock.” The students are not judged and are often affirmed, but they’re also challenged on any negative behaviors.

Besides training in job skills, participants learn how to interview for permanent food-service jobs in the New Orleans area. Each graduate is assigned a social worker who will accompany him or her on interviews. Sister Mary Lou tells students, “We will teach you how to interview and set up the interview for you. But we cannot get you the job. You will have to use the skills you learned at the Café.”

Because Café Reconcile is a highly sophisticated place for social networking, it partners with a variety of restaurants seeking to hire well-trained workers. These include the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, the Roosevelt Hotel, Tulane University, and the Oschner Hospitals. McDonald’s has also looked at Café Reconcile as a training institute.

Seventy percent of the students who enter the program graduate. The Café follows each student’s progress for four months and has found that 60 percent work the entire time. This is a remarkable success rate considering that before coming to Reconcile, these kids were virtually unemployable.

Café Reconcile owns the five-story building that houses the restaurant, the only part of the building that has been developed. When the remaining four floors are developed, the second floor will become a catering hall for banquets, which will provide another source of revenue as well as another level of training. This floor will also house a culinary school under the sponsorship of Emeril Lagasse, one of New Orleans’ most famous chefs.

The third floor will house a family learning center in collaboration with Loyola University and the Literary Alliance. The fourth floor will contain a business-accelerator program run by the Good Network Alliance for women and minorities, and the fifth floor will house administrative offices for all of Café Reconcile’s programs.

“We sometimes just plant the seed with people, and it grows into a whole new awareness,” Sister Mary Lou said. “Café Reconcile started simply in response to an overwhelming need. Its growth will allow us to give young people who come to us even more opportunities.”

Father Allan Weinert, C.Ss.R., is financial secretary for the Denver Province of Redemptorists. Father Weinert was editor of Liguorian from 1989 to 2002.