Cafe Momentum Pittsburgh aims to give youth more than a job
Gene
Walker knows the road to success has many stops and starts. Consider his path to become executive director of Cafe Momentum Pittsburgh, the soonto-open nonprofit restaurant and professional training facility in Downtown that gives juvenile offenders a second chance.
The East Liberty native graduated from Peabody High Schools and studied accounting at Bloomsburg University. For a decade after earning his degree in 1998, he made his living in northeastern Pennsylvania in finance and marketing. It wasn't until he boomeranged home in 2009 to take a job with The Pittsburgh Promise that the Brighton Heights resident was ready to trade “chasing money” for a more fulfilling life of service.
“If I help enough people get where they should go,” he remembers thinking, “I'll get where I should go.”
As the Promise's benchmarks manager, it was Walker's job to ensure the nonprofit met its goal of creating economic mobility for urban youth by providing college scholarships to those who met the criteria. A passionate and energetic advocate for kids facing obstacles, Walker quickly rose through the ranks, eventually becoming its partnerships manager.
“It was a cool thing, taking the lessons I've learned and helping others experience their dreams without barriers,” he says.
Yet by 2018 he was getting antsy, feeling he'd hit the ceiling for growth and perspective.
He left to launch Mission C, a nonprofit that provided financial education and support for people facing eviction. A year later, he changed jobs again, signing on with Gene Cook Supports, which works with adults with intellectual and physical disabilities. He also ran for a seat on the Pittsburgh School Board — and won. (He's currently in the second year of his fouryear term.)
It was during his 2021 campaign that Cafe Momentum appeared on Walker's radar, after a friend mentioned they were looking for an executive director in Pittsburgh.
The restaurant got its start in 2008 in Dallas
when executive chef Chad Houser was asked to teach a group of young men in juvenile detention how to make ice cream. As he learned more about how they ended up incarcerated, he decided to “walk the talk” and create job experiences for teens who didn't have a lot of options.
In 2011, he started a series of pop-up dinners to raise money for a restaurant with a locally sourced New American menu that would provide 15- to 19-year-olds coming out of the juvenile justice system with a fresh start. It opened in 2015.
Though he had no experience in hospitality, Walker was struck by Cafe Momentum's mission of giving young people a second chance through paid job training, life skills and education in a safe environment.
A lot of young Black men don't have a vision of what their life can be, Walker noted. Cafe Momentum “struck all the right chords” because is brings together two seemingly disparate worlds — youth services and restaurants — in a way that's both unique and delivers results. He got the job in March 2022.
At an invitation-only soft event on Feb. 6 that offered a taste of chef Peter Henry's menu, Walker said they took a risk when they started the journey a year ago with the idea they do something “really special with special kids in an unconventional way.”
“Today, we've witnessed the power of that risk,” he
said in a short speech after dinner, which featured a house-made charcuterie board and chicory and beet salads, along with the cafe's signature smoked fried chicken with collard greens and mashed potatoes with black-pepper gravy.
Walker teared up as he prepared to introduce the current cohort of nine students, all but one of whom were working for the very first time in a restaurant that evening following a four-day orientation.
“We're developing skills and teaching that what we see on the surface and read on the news is not the whole story,” he told guests. “We set a really high bar for our young people when they come into this program.”
One intern, Daniel, revealed how he used to break into houses to get food for his little sister. Now at Cafe Momentum Pittsburgh, “I found a little gateway of happiness,” he said with a giant grin. Every day is still hard, “but I finally feel like I'm finally on my path.”
After receiving their ServSafe certification during orientation, youths embark on a 12-month paid internship program during which they learn the nine stations of a restaurant. Its holistic approach means interns — who each have an assigned case manager — receive life and social skills to help them break the cycle of incarceration and violence. They also get voluntary educational assistance and individual and group therapy.