From Aug 30, 2010 Press Democrat
SONOMA STORIES
Cafe serves up fresh opportunities
JEFF KAN LEE/ PD
Chef and teacher Evelyn Cheatham
(center) with students Michael Bogan and Joe Lopez in the kitchen at Worth
Our Weight.
A cozy, tasty, neighborly weekend brunch spot isn't hard
to find in Sonoma County, but don't bother looking for another place like
Evelyn Cheatham's. No one on the staff of her oddly named cafe near Santa
Rosa's Montgomery Village gets paid, including herself. And diners aren't
given checks. Patrons of Worth Our Weight -- more commonly called WOW --
are invited, once they finish their fresh pastries, fruit, hearty entrees and
custard-cup desserts, to leave a donation. Good food is served to patrons at Cheatham’s culinary
apprentice restaurant, open only Saturdays and Sundays. But Worth Our
Weight’s primary reason for being is to serve the children of neglect who
come there for hands-on instruction in food preparation, table-waiting and
the essential skills of life. “My main thing is to keep them off the streets,”
Cheatham said. She knows that the under-served teens and young adults
trained by her and her volunteers are less liable to become homeless or
incarcerated if they learn restaurant and catering work. WOW training focuses
also on the fundamentals key to remaining employed in any occupation: showing
up on time, working conscientiously, conducting oneself courteously and
professionally. "I want to show them that work is the pathway to
success," said Cheatham, passionate and gentle-natured at 57. The instruction for her trainees, aged 16 to 24, starts out
at a most basic level. When they enroll at WOW, some have seldom if ever
eaten at a real restaurant, perhaps not even at a family table. Few have
experienced wholesome and natural ingredients, much less cooked anything with
them. No one on the staff of her oddly named cafe near Santa
Rosa's Montgomery Village gets paid, including herself. And diners aren't
given checks. Patrons of Worth Our Weight -- more commonly called WOW --
are invited, once they finish their fresh pastries, fruit, hearty entrees and
custard-cup desserts, to leave a donation. Good food is served to patrons at Cheatham's culinary
apprentice restaurant, open only Saturdays and Sundays. But Worth Our
Weight's primary reason for being is to serve the children of neglect who
come there for hands-on instruction in food preparation, table-waiting and
the essential skills of life. "My main thing is to keep them off the streets,"
Cheatham said. She knows that the under-served teens and young adults
trained by her and her volunteers are less liable to become homeless or
incarcerated if they learn restaurant and catering work. WOW training focuses
also on the fundamentals key to remaining employed in any occupation: showing
up on time, working conscientiously, conducting oneself courteously and
professionally. "I want to show them that work is the pathway to
success," said Cheatham, passionate and gentle-natured at 57. The instruction for her trainees, aged 16 to 24, starts out
at a most basic level. When they enroll at WOW, some have seldom if ever
eaten at a real restaurant, perhaps not even at a family table. Few have
experienced wholesome and natural ingredients, much less cooked anything with
them. There is no typical trainee at WOW. Some are on their own
after turning 18 and being cut loose from foster care. Some have committed
crimes and are on probation, or were. Others struggle with learning
disabilities or the absence of responsible parents and normal familial love
and support. "There are kids here who are starving, literally
starving," Cheatham said. "They are society's throwaways, but they
are so precious." She said that since she first worked with seriously
challenged teens at the county's live-in Probation Camp a decade ago, she's
learned that often under the tough exteriors are innocent, inexperienced kids
eager to learn from and blossom for adults who show them some interest and
care. "They are worth their weight in gold," she said.
Thus, the name of her cafe. Cheatham started the nonprofit culinary program in 2006 as a
catering company in Windsor. Prior to then, the San Francisco native and
daughter of a gourmet-cook mom ("I had pheasant sandwiches in my
lunchbox") had worked at upscale restaurants and owned her own Mendocino
Avenue bakery-cafe, Tweets. She'd assumed that her lifelong interest in
creating good food would culminate in her becoming an executive chef at some
fine hotel. That presumption went into the compost pile when she was
invited a decade ago to create and operate a culinary training program for
young male offenders at the Sonoma County Probation Camp off Eastside Road. She remembers her initial steely reception. "There were
all these boys, sitting outside, staring at me." It occurred to her to
walk back to her car and leave. Instead she said, "How are you?" "Their faces broke into grins, and they're just
kids," she said. She was astonished to learn that most of the boys knew
nothing about food. More sadly, many had never experienced the common, human
pleasure of a nice meal out or a holiday feast shared around a family table. "I fell in love with those kids," she said.
"I learned so much about young people at risk." No one on the staff of her oddly named cafe near Santa
Rosa's Montgomery Village gets paid, including herself. And diners aren't
given checks. Patrons of Worth Our Weight -- more commonly called WOW --
are invited, once they finish their fresh pastries, fruit, hearty entrees and
custard-cup desserts, to leave a donation. Good food is served to patrons at Cheatham's culinary
apprentice restaurant, open only Saturdays and Sundays. But Worth Our
Weight's primary reason for being is to serve the children of neglect who
come there for hands-on instruction in food preparation, table-waiting and
the essential skills of life. "My main thing is to keep them off the streets,"
Cheatham said. She knows that the under-served teens and young adults
trained by her and her volunteers are less liable to become homeless or
incarcerated if they learn restaurant and catering work. WOW training focuses
also on the fundamentals key to remaining employed in any occupation: showing
up on time, working conscientiously, conducting oneself courteously and
professionally. "I want to show them that work is the pathway to
success," said Cheatham, passionate and gentle-natured at 57. The instruction for her trainees, aged 16 to 24, starts out
at a most basic level. When they enroll at WOW, some have seldom if ever
eaten at a real restaurant, perhaps not even at a family table. Few have
experienced wholesome and natural ingredients, much less cooked anything with
them. There is no typical trainee at WOW. Some are on their own
after turning 18 and being cut loose from foster care. Some have committed
crimes and are on probation, or were. Others struggle with learning
disabilities or the absence of responsible parents and normal familial love
and support. "There are kids here who are starving, literally
starving," Cheatham said. "They are society's throwaways, but they
are so precious." She said that since she first worked with seriously
challenged teens at the county's live-in Probation Camp a decade ago, she's
learned that often under the tough exteriors are innocent, inexperienced kids
eager to learn from and blossom for adults who show them some interest and
care. "They are worth their weight in gold," she said.
Thus, the name of her cafe. Cheatham started the nonprofit culinary program in 2006 as a
catering company in Windsor. Prior to then, the San Francisco native and
daughter of a gourmet-cook mom ("I had pheasant sandwiches in my
lunchbox") had worked at upscale restaurants and owned her own Mendocino
Avenue bakery-cafe, Tweets. She'd assumed that her lifelong interest in
creating good food would culminate in her becoming an executive chef at some
fine hotel. That presumption went into the compost pile when she was
invited a decade ago to create and operate a culinary training program for
young male offenders at the Sonoma County Probation Camp off Eastside Road. She remembers her initial steely reception. "There were
all these boys, sitting outside, staring at me." It occurred to her to
walk back to her car and leave. Instead she said, "How are you?" "Their faces broke into grins, and they're just
kids," she said. She was astonished to learn that most of the boys knew
nothing about food. More sadly, many had never experienced the common, human
pleasure of a nice meal out or a holiday feast shared around a family table. Cheatham didn't pry into the boys' lives but learned through
conversation that the childhoods of many consisted of harrowing abuse,
neglect and deprivation. The thought occurred to her that if she'd grown up with
that, she'd probably have struck out and gotten herself arrested, too. Teen
violence such as the 1999 massacre at Colorado's Columbine High School made
more sense to her. The bolt-like realization came to her that she wanted to do
more with kids saddled with dim prospects for life because the culture had
decided they were beyond care. She created Worth Our Weight as a nonprofit and invited a
group of engaged community members onto its board of directors. She opened an
apprentice catering service in Windsor. Finding after a short while that she
wanted to introduce the trainees to restaurant work, she created a cafe in a
former ice cream parlor on Santa Rosa's Third Street. WOW moved in mid-2008 to a spot on Hahman Drive, next to the
Santa Rosa Boys and Girls Club and up the block from Montgomery High. The
operation survives on donations and occasional fundraisers. Cheatham takes no
salary but lives simply on what she earns teaching part-time in the culinary
program at Santa Rosa Junior College. "This is a healing place," she said at a table in
her bright and lively cafe. "You can do a lot of healing in the kitchen. What's
there? There's love and there's food." What more does a kid need? |