Hope Café celebrates its second anniversary with MEDC Main Street grant

COLDWATER — Hope Café celebrated Tuesday's second anniversary with a $20,278 Michigan Economic Development Corporation's Match on Main grant.

Kim Hemker, director of the Branch County Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, opened the café in 2022, "creating a place where people could come and get information," in a non-intimidating atmosphere.

Hemker said Hope Café at 49 West Chicago became a meeting place for everyone.

Hemker said, "We do empowered employment with some of our victims. When someone comes in, someone's behind the counter, or they're in the kitchen, and you have no idea if they're a victim, a volunteer, or an employee. Sometimes they've been all of those things."

From a restaurant background, Hemker always hoped to open a catering business to bring abuse survivors into a work environment.

The jobs at Hope Café allow survivors to learn to interview, communicate, and build a resume.

Hemker said, "We talk about how it is out in the public or what if your abuser comes here," so the victims can return to the community.

Hemker said, "The goal is to actually build them up, get them ready, and have them trained to actually go somewhere else."

An intern turned employee put the concept onto paper, so Hemker was ready when she learned Scott and Dianne Morrison were renovating the first floor of the current building. The couple showed the space to Hemker, who immediately recognized that the location fit her Hope Café concept.

The Match on Main grant will help fund new coolers, cooking and baking equipment, indoor and outdoor seating, and inventory to help grow the business while providing a more comfortable atmosphere.

Audrey Tappenden, executive director of the Branch County Economic Growth Alliance, said, "This Match on Main Award is all about helping the café grow and create partnerships."

Hope Café will expand its products and services to create a partnership to provide food and goods to Jim's Place, the new pool hall bar on South Monroe Street.

Hemker said Hope Café truly is a nonprofit. "The money and profits go right back into the business. There's no money made here. It all goes right back into the community serving survivors."

Open from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and until 2 p.m. on Saturday, the restaurant serves coffee, breakfast, and lunch and has a new take-out cooler for those who don't want to wait.

The Chameleon shares the space selling goods and products. Hemker explained that they are "co-Op partners, many of them single women that have a small business selling something often online."

Hemker invites them to sell their products. "They don't pay us anything to be here, but they can donate their time, work in the kitchen or behind the counter so that we don't have to pay additional staff."

Hemker said, "We are just so proud to be a part of the downtown and that the Match on Main program felt that the work we are doing, not only in the downtown, but with community partners is worth enhancing."

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The MEDC's Match on Main reimbursement grant program serves as a tool to support new or expanding place-based businesses by providing funding to support an eligible small business, Tappenden said.

The MEDC approved 31 projects total throughout the state for the 2024 funding round, including the submission from Hope Café and Coldwater as a Select Level Main Street Community.

— Contact Don Reid: dReid@Gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: Hope Café celebrates its second anniversary with MEDC Main Street grant