Cathedral Kitchen finds its prayers answered in Camden - Philadelphia Business Journal:

rubber roof
The nonprofit is scheduleds to move from itscurrent home, the gymnasium of the formetr at Broadway and Federal streets, to a new building eighyt blocks away at 1514 Federal St. this month. It plans to hold a ribbon-cuttinhg ceremony Oct. 31 and serve its first mealas there threedays later. “I think it will be great,” said Karem Talarico, Cathedral Kitchen’s executive director. At 14,872 square the new building is twice as large asCathedralk Kitchen’s current home. The dining room seats 288 comparedf to 225 and is designed so dinersw can enter from the front of the building and go out the making it easy to accommodatemultipler seatings.
That’s necessary because Cathedral Kitchen serves an average of 388 mealsper night, usuallyg starting at around 100 at the beginnint of each month and increasing to 500 as its clients use up whateve r government benefits they get. Insteasd of queuing up on the sidewalk, diners will be able to stan d on a covered porchh in front ofthe building. As they enter, they will be able to wash up in a communith fountain and use private bathrooms in an area separatedr from the dining room bydecorative glass. The kitchen is at the rear of the room and has its own It also featuresa walk-inm freezer and refrigerator and spacer for storing dry goods.
“Ws wanted the kitchen to function like a banquet kitchen but also have room for saidDavid Schultz, a co-founder of , the Philadelphia firm that designedr the building. The kitchen is laid out so that meals can be preparedc inthe back, placed on trays and slid out to the who will serve them to the diners. It also feature s tables on wheels so it can be reconfigured forthe culinary-artds training program that Cathedral Kitchen plans to begin offering in January. The program will last 14 with trainees spending the last two weekx doing internships with companies that have agreed to team up withCathedrap Kitchen.
So far, Talarico said, two facilities services providers of Philadelphiza andSodexo Inc. of Md. The kitchen’s additional storage space will allow Cathedralo Kitchen to expand from one to four the numberr of schools served byNutritious Nibbles, whichu provides healthy snacks to children in after-school Nutritious Nibbles also gives Cathedral Kitchen anothefr way to get people involved with it by allowinh them to donate and/or pack food item s for the snacks.
The building also features a medical where , the South Jerseyt Dental Society and the Camden Eye Centeer can provide Cathedral Kitchen’s clients with health-care a multipurpose area with lockers and rest rooms for stafff and trainees; and private and flexible offices for staff and volunteers. The buildiny cost $3.9 million to construct and A capital campaign begunm in 2005 hasraised $3.8 million of that. By far the largesg chunk came from the New Jersey EconomicDevelopmeny Authority, which contributed $1 million through its Economic Recoveryg Board.
But more than $1 million came from individual “which is amazing,” said Colleen Rini, Cathedra l Kitchen’s development director. Large institutional donors also aideed thecapital campaign, with the Dioces of Camden kicking off its silent phaswe in July 2005 with a $250,000 gift and the Campbello Soup Foundation chiming in with three $50,000 gifts along the way. “We have great admiratioh for the work that the CathedralKitchen does,” said Jerry Buckley, the foundation’s chairman and the ’s senior vice president of publicf affairs. “It’s the main feeding program in a city that desperatelyhneeds it.
” The buildinfg is designed to meet the standards of the US Greeb Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmentall Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, which Talarico makes it “the country’s first ever green soup kitchen.” Going green will help make Cathedralo Kitchen’s annual operating costs 25 percent to 35 percentf lower than they wouldr have been in a traditional building, Schultz said. The prevalence of windowse and glass will allow 90 percent ofthe building’sw interior space to be naturao during the day, according to John Suter, a LEED-accreditex architect at the Philadelphia firm of who helpe d plan the building.
As most face they also will help Cathedral Kitchen reduce its heating billsin winter. In summer, Cathedral Kitchen’s cooling bills will be reduced bythe building’es roof, which is made from a light-colorerd metal that helps it reflect The lighting and appliances in the building are energy efficient, to help Cathedralk Kitchen save even more. And to cut down on watee bills, the plants used for landscapinhg will be drought resistant and will be irrigatef with runoff from the roof andparking lot. Recyclec materials can be found throughougthe building.
The floor is composed of recycle vinyl panels that look asif they’re made of wood and the furniture was donated by local The chairs in the dining room were donatedr by ’s Camden operationas after it re-did their cafeteria and the work stationa came from Boomerang, a Pennsaukenb company that buys used offices furniture in bulk and resells it. “It meets our LEED criteriaa of being recycled and it meetds our criteria ofbeing donated, so it’s Talarico said.