Serving the Community: Finding Passion In Service

Anna Rainey’s passion for food and fellowship led her to her dream job at Café Hope in the Greater New Orleans area, a non-profit dedicated to giving its students the life and job skills needed for success.

Written by APRIL CLARK HONAKER & Photography by KELLY MOORE CLARK

After working without passion as an ophthalmic technician for most of her 20s, Anna Rainey decided to change course and follow her heart. After a lot of twists and turns, she finally found her dream job as operations manager at Café Hope, a nonprofit restaurant that serves youth in the Greater New Orleans area. Located on the campus of the Timberlane Golf and Country Club in Gretna, Café Hope is dedicated to giving its students the life and job skills they need to be successful in the real world. It is a nondenominational, faith-based organization that prepares them not only for food service, including culinary training, but also to approach life more confidently and to become leaders in their communities.

When Anna decided to leave the medical field and pursue a career in food service, she was living in Arizona where some friends noticed her affinity for cooking and experimenting with food. They encouraged her to pursue it. Because she had already attended Louisiana Tech University, she wasn’t interested in starting over academically, but at the same time, she needed some education if she wanted to be successful in this new career. Soon she was enrolled in the Culinary Arts School at Scottsdale Community College. “I was literally starting from scratch,” she said, “so it was a whole new world, but it was the best thing I’ve ever done. I just learned so much.”

After working in Scottsdale at Pomegranate Café, a vegan restaurant, and later under Chef Matt Carter at The Mission, Anna started to wonder if she was meant for the fast pace and high stress of a restaurant kitchen. She also felt the south was calling her back. Originally from Ruston, Louisiana, Anna said it took a lot of orchestration to visit home, and it simply didn’t happen often enough. She knew she wanted to be closer to family, but her sister had also recently moved to New Orleans. Although Anna didn’t know for sure what she would do there, the thought of moving to New Orleans, a city widely known for its cuisine, was appealing. Before she knew it, she was there.

When Anna got to New Orleans, she didn’t know where to start. “It was a totally different lifestyle,” she said, “and I was just trying to figure out how to live and what to do. I didn’t understand restaurant culture here yet.” So she found a temporary job in the medical field and launched her own catering business called Food Therapy Nola. In Arizona, she had dabbled in catering for baby showers and friends’ parties, so those experiences had helped her realize she could make money doing something she loved and have fun doing it.

In her spare time, Anna also researched restaurant culture in New Orleans. She didn’t want to work in the medical field any longer than she had to, and her research led her to Chef Alon Shaya at Domenica. When a position as a line cook opened there, she applied and was hired. “It was one of the second best experiences I’ve ever had,” she said. “It really started my life in New Orleans.”

While at Domenica, Anna learned to make pizza from Phillip Mariano, who was chef de cuisine at the time, and later she worked alongside Morgan Angelle, chef de cuisine at Pizza Domenica. She said working at Domenica was intense but amazing. During this time, she was really starting to settle into New Orleans, build professional relationships, and find her group of friends. “In the restaurant industry, you’re always working alongside friends,” she said. But the friends she made while working at Domenica are still her friends today.

Although she was happy for the most part and still catering on the side, she had this feeling that she hadn’t quite found her place in the world yet. “I was praying every day for a job,” she said. “I kinda just wanted to wear normal clothes, work in a restaurant, and have the opportunity to help people,” she said, “and health insurance would be cool too.” She was looking for her dream job when she found the opening for an operations manager at Café Hope. Working in the front of the house would be a big change, but the thought of working at a nonprofit that helped young people learn food service made her heart swell. She talked it over with some of her friends and decided to apply. “Anyone that knew me knew this job would be perfect for me,” she said.

In the end, her friendship with Phillip Mariano proved to be invaluable when it came to getting the job. His connections and recommendation helped ensure she was considered, despite her lack of front-of-house experience. Since becoming operations manager, Anna’s never been happier. “I love the mission,” she said. “I love what I do every day.”
According to Anna, Café Hope has secured jobs for almost 1000 kids. “You might not place everyone,” she said, “but at minimum you can make an impact in their daily life.” Just as working in the front of the house has forced Anna out of her comfort zone, learning new skills and engaging with new people has forced the kids out of their comfort zones as well. “It changes their personality in a good way,” she said. “You get to see them blossom.”

One student in particular, a girl named Taylor, had been deemed disabled and was on government assistance when she came to Café Hope. She went through the program and was hired as a server, but now she has a full-time job at a daycare. She and Anna have also remained friends. They encourage one another to be healthy and continue to be accountable to one another in other ways.

Another graduate named Seth was a line cook at Café Hope. Now he and another graduate work at Carrollton Market, a modern Southern bistro with a sophisticated yet simple approach to food. “It’s such an awesome environment for them,” Anna said. “To see them there enjoying it and getting good feedback, it’s really rewarding.”

On a day-to-day basis, the goal of Café Hope is to prepare students for the real world, but according to Anna, their work is also part of a much larger goal: ending the cycle of poverty. Anna is doing what she can to contribute and said, “I don’t care how much money I make. I just want to serve.” In fact, she wouldn’t have it any other way because serving is part of who she is. After her grandma died, Anna found a rock in her backyard with the word service painted on it. She said, “That’s where I get my drive from, and when my dad died, I got to hear all these stories about people he helped.” So for Anna, serving others isn’t just a pastime. It’s a family legacy.

Unfortunately, when you have a heart for service, it isn’t always easy to find like-minded people. For this reason, Anna feels fortunate to have found her people at Café Hope. The staff is small, but it feels like family. “I finally feel like I’m around people like me,” she said. “I’ve never felt that before.” She describes executive director Luis Arocha as a great role model and admires his willingness to leave a more lucrative career for a life of service. He’s taught Anna so much, especially about business. But there are also strong role models in the kitchen. According to Anna, Chef Garin Siekkinen is just a really good person. He’s nonjudgmental and accepting of everyone. “To me, he’s what it means to be a Christian,” she said. “It’s great that Café Hope gives us all a home.”

In a way, Café Hope is also a home to the kids they serve. It’s a home to them in the sense that they are loved unconditionally. “We step in when most people turn their backs,” Anna said. The kids they serve are disadvantaged, and many of them have experienced trauma-level events or abuse. They come to Café Hope with a fight, flight, or freeze response already ingrained, and sometimes they act out. But that’s why they need help. That’s why they need a change in perspective. “We give a lot of chances,” Anna said. “We’re all human and people make mistakes. There’s no better place to make a mistake than with people who are all on your team.”

In the end, helping students succeed is definitely easier said than done, but it’s worth it to see them thrive. The best part for Anna is seeing their progress, seeing them complete their GEDs, seeing them come out of their shells, seeing them apply the new skills they’ve learned, and seeing them graduate and chart a new course in life, just as she did.

“I couldn’t put this job in one box,” she said. “We do so much. It’s multifaceted. I guess that’s what makes it interesting.” Much of what Café Hope does takes place within the context of the restaurant, but according to their website, the first four weeks of their 16-week program are devoted to building basic life skills, such as communication, conflict resolution, appreciation, team work, and goal setting. Anna said the program didn’t always include the life skills portion, but when they saw that students were getting jobs and not keeping them, they knew they were missing something. Now, after adding four weeks of life-skills training, their students are getting jobs and keeping them.

During those first four weeks, students also take two field trips with at least one being service related. In these field trips, one of the things Café Hope likes to do is give the students an opportunity to experience fine dining and service. “A lot of these kids have never seen amazing service,” Anna said. “How do you teach them something they’ve never seen?” Although Café Hope generates much of the funding for its program through its restaurant, like any nonprofit, certain needs, such as field trips, depend on donations and fundraising. Anna said that in the future she would also like to add a managerial track program that would allow Café Hope to locate potential leaders in high schools and other places in the community and help them reach their full potential. “We try to do that on a student specific basis,” she said, “but we don’t go out and look for those people. I would like to. That’s one of my dreams.”

Anna is certainly passionate about her job, and she wants to continue dreaming big dreams for Café Hope and its students, but she also encourages others to get involved. There are many opportunities to show support, including eating at the restaurant, ordering a king cake, volunteering, and donating. But those who support Café Hope are just as likely to be impacted as they are to make an impact.

Anna said that interacting with the students, customers, and families has opened her heart more than she ever imagined. It’s moved her so much that she’s taking classes to foster. She used to think it would be too hard emotionally, but working at Café Hope has changed her perspective. “I get the need for it now, and I want to do it,” she said. Although the mission of Café Hope is largely to teach youth new skills, Anna said, “They teach us more than we teach them sometimes. They reinforce our purpose in life, and hopefully we can make an impact too because that’s what it’s all about.”