Feed This Community Spotlight: Kula Cafe And Kula Urban Farm

Kula, Ideas, And Community Transformation

Have you ever had a thought, idea or dream, that just would not cease to pull at your heart, drawing you in? It’s filling you with passion, determination, creativity, and fulfillment, even if it doesn’t even exist yet? That’s how I felt about the Kula Café and I can’t wait to describe the Café and its work to you today.

Several years ago, I went to my friends at Interfaith Neighbors and I told them that I had the idea to do training café for front of house work. I’d seen that young adults in our community didn’t have opportunities to work in restaurants. At that time a lot of restaurants were opening and this meant great job opportunity, if young people had the confidence and training in hospitality.

The Empowering Experience Of Training And Working In Hospitality

I am a firm believer in the power of training people in the work of hospitality because it can build confidence, communication skills, and leadership skills. It’s been my experience that if you can communicate in a way to makes people feel good you’re going to find success in what you do. Training in hospitality offers access to a great skill set where people learn to manage themselves in a business, acting a sort of independent contractor in the moment. You have your section, your tasks, and you’re running that part of the business in that moment. I feel that if young people learn these skills they will learn to feel good about themselves and they will then take that into whatever career they pursue. Whether they work in retail, in an office, in a warehouse, in a school, they can take those skills, those abilities, and that confident communication, into that job and create success.

Coffee, Hot Chocolate, And The Common Good

When I had the idea for Kula Café, I found that there was not much of that front-of-house training, at least not in my neighborhood. I also knew that, while I loved cooking, not everyone wants be a cook and that is a different skillset all together.

When we began, Interfaith Neighbors and I went out into the community to give coffee and hot chocolate to people and businesses in town. The next step was to want to have people in community give to community.  There was a good deal of gang activity in Asbury but when the hot chocolate and coffee came by, people of every walk of life would come together to share a cup.

 This became a time where we realized we all wanted the same things, we just went about them in different ways. Someone might not want to interact with different gangs but both parties want a cup of coffee. So, for a time they’re willing and able to share that space with people whose experience is different than their own. This kind of community effort brings different people together. After the coffee and hot chocolate experience, Interfaith loved the as-yet-unnamed-idea and took it on. 

Asking “What’s Next?” And Answering In A Big Way

I had just left politics, and my husband Scott and I discussed the next chapter of our personal lives (Do we want kids? Do we want to move? What’s next?)

For me, travel has always been something I love and I’d always wanted to go on a women’s surf meditation trip. It just so happened that one was available and affordable at that time and so I went to Maui on a retreat that was sponsored by the surf brand Carve.

I was there. I was soaking in the Maui sun and so I headed to our first meditation. The topic of that first meditation was on the idea of Kula. Kula is the Hawaiian concept of a community of the heart (We wrap around our community with a passion for that community.) I loved my surf retreat experience (To read more about it, click here ) and returned to Asbury Park with a revitalized spirit, and a name for this place for Interfaith Neighbors: We decided to call it Kula Café.

Kula And Community Impact

 I know it’s not a Jersey word, but it is a beautiful word and a beautiful representation of what Kula offers the community and its people. Kula Café empowers the community grow, to strengthen itself, and to believe in itself.

The Kula Café has since been joined by Kula Urban Farm (right beside The Kula Cafe) where greens, microgreens, and edible flowers are grown. They’re then sold and delivered to local restaurants. Kula Urban Farm offers access to locally grown organic produce. The Farm’s work means that more people in the community are involved in knowing where their produce comes from, how it feels, and perhaps even what it means to want to pursue a career in some form related to that sort of work.  

This work may mean that people, who may not otherwise be exposed to such things, might explore careers in urban farming, horticulture, landscaping, and other related areas. The Café and The Farm are giving the people of Asbury Park the opportunity to discover passion they may not have been Intune with otherwise.

Igniting Passion Through Experience

Thinking about Kula Café And Kula Urban Farm brings me back to the first time I ever cooked at Oshin. It’s an understatement to say that something was just ignited in me. I know that it was a transformative moment and yet, I am also aware that we don’t always know where that passion will come from. Exposing community youth to new things will be of benefit to them because they will have the opportunity to explore things, all sorts of things:  From the beach, to business, to the chance to find desire in ways that were not always full available to the prior generation. When we find ways to provide these opportunities we give everyone in our community a way to look forward to what lies ahead.

A Leap Of Faith And The Kula Movement

Kula Café brings in a youthful demographic to explore something that excites and inspires them. The Café is a new, stable, and grounding place for the west side of Asbury.

This area is also experiencing the development of new gardens, parks, and affordable housing. It’s a transformation that has just begun with Interfaith Neighbors taking on this project and taking on this corner of the community.  Interfaith’s work, and my own, has convinced me that it only takes one person or group to take that leap of faith and hope that others follow.

That leap of faith, when made with amazing partners like Interfaith Neighbors, creates a movement.

Kula is The Café.
Kula is The Movement.

What’s Next? 

• To learn more about Kula Café and Kula Urban Farm, click here

• To learn more about Interfaith Neighbors, click here

• To pick up your copy of my new cookbook and support amazing organizations like Interfaith Neighbor’s Kula Café And Kula Urban Farm, click here

Kula and My Maui Surf Retreat

My Maui Adventure (After 30 Years Of Working On My Birthday… I'm Off To Surf & To Celebrate Me!)

After 30 years of hardworking summertime birthdays - I am taking a solo journey to clear my mind and feed my belly... 

There was a point not too long ago when I didn’t know what I wanted to do next. Was I going to run for office? Open another restaurant? Have kids? As my birthday neared these questions seemed more urgent than ever and so off I went on my Maui adventure.
Lightly Salted carried a women’s surf brand called Carve who were offering me the chance to attend a women’s surf retreat in Maui and it was affordable. My husband agreed it would be a great experience and I was definitely ready for some good surf and an adventure as large as my dreams.

My retreat group was made of women of all ages, from 21 to late sixties and I found myself smack-dab in the middle. Some were adept surfers and some were just learning but we were quite a strong, brave, and connected crew. 

It was nice to be pushed and guided to surf. It was divine to be with supportive group of women, in beautiful place with amazing energy. It led me to ask many questions, not the least of which was “Why don’t I live in Hawaii? “

Never one to leave my chef’s hat at home, even on retreat, I found myself savoring the flavors of the food prepared by our retreat chef Peter. He made a chocolate mousse one day and I was enraptured by it. I just couldn’t pinpoint what made it so special. So, Peter taught me to cook it. It was a simple dessert but left me with a lasting memory of the experience of connecting with the person who made it and taught me to do the same. In case you feel like you’re missing out: Aloha mousse is on the menu. (It’s a delectable vegan chocolate mousse made with avocado!)

At the time of the Maui retreat NJ was going through Irene. I honestly began to feel disconnected from it and helpless. My husband, the restaurant and staff, the pets, and everyone else, evacuated. My husband took care of these things, got everyone and everything out, board windows, and Irene didn’t hit New Jersey so badly, thank goodness.

Irene hit me though. I felt strange: I’m sitting there in warm sunshine, surrounded with feminine energy and support, and my husband is going through that. There was a challenge in that feeling, a feeling of wanting to fly home, an inability to do so and a letting go. “I’m here and I can’t go home, so sitting and worrying and not having this experience is not a positive outcome of any of this.” I told myself. 

One of my most amazing memories of the trip was a volcano drive we went on. We drove up to a volcano in middle of night, to see stars. We had gone up in dark, so we had no idea where we really were. All we saw were the dark shadows of the people we were with.  As light dawns, it feels insane but you really don’t know what it’s going to look like from where you are.

We watched the sunrise there, had a cup of coffee and then mountain biked down from there. I felt like I was on another planet, all I saw were craters and rocks. The clouds were below me. I felt like I was on mars.

On another excursion we drove the Hana highway, drove around the other side of Maui through lush green, and walked the waterfalls. It was so diverse, so beautiful and I wondered where else could I be at a volcano at 5 am, the beach midday, at a plantation in the afternoon, a luau for dinner, and do all of that all in one day. 

While those adventures are forever in my heart, I find myself warmed by one simple meditation most of all. On the first day of the retreat, during our meditation circle the focus was on the idea of Kula, or community of the heart. This community of the heart struck me and is ultimately how the idea for Kula café came to be. I found myself ready to create an extended community family, to offer Ohana, and to extend Kula to the place I call home.

So, what does Kula look like in practice? Kula looks like Interfaith Neighbors going into the community to give out hot chocolate and coffee and donuts and pastries in the community 1 night a week. It looks like neighbors extending love to neighbors. 

When I came back from Hawaii, I really began to think about what this would mean for me in practice. I knew we needed this front of house component in Asbury that isn’t addressed by culinary schools or other non-profits. I knew there are people who could be working but don’t have confidence skills and training to do it. Why not expand on the Interfaith Neighbors grant and create a café that trains community members and feeds the community itself.

I set out to hire a chef that staff could resonate with, someone who connects with participants in program to help them succeed. I found a chef who was passionate about mission, someone patient. Kula would focus on front of house training (since there were more of those jobs in the community) Kula would have these people learn to do that skill set (building confidence to speak and connect with others).

I found that hospitality was a thread through anything you do: It’s evident in the bedside manner of a doctor, in the patience of a person who sells you your car, the pleasant manner of the realtor, and the empowering insight of someone selling you shoes.

If you develop that communication skill of engaging with another human being, it’s a skillset that can take you anywhere. It’s a big part of growing the community too. Self-confidence is something that a lot of people in the community may not have as a result of many factors and it is something we can teach. It bridges the gap of community of people who are building up or falling behind. It answers a critical question: How do we bring together rather than push away? Connection and bring together rather than pushing people aside are Kula and I knew we could make it a reality every day.

  As the vision became clearer the name fit more and more: The word Kula (community of the heart) would be a great name for this café, it had depth and great meaning. In practice I knew Kula would be a community working together and the inspiration of my Maui trip became reality in its development. I truly love when you go somewhere and are inspired by something that triggers something else for someone else. This chain reaction is not always big, but it’s always impactful.