Caritas Community Center & Cafe

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Caritas to stay closed for summer, restructure, open kitchen to food entrepreneurs
Greater partnership seen as way to safeguard center’s mission and commitment to Binghamton

Memphis, TN – The pandemic-related closure of Caritas Community Center and Café, which meant layoffs for all staff, will remain in effect through the summer to allow the nonprofit’s board to restructure Caritas in hopes of putting it on a more sustainable path in delivering on its mission to serve Binghamton.

Caritas’ kitchen will be converted from a café to a community resource for food entrepreneurs, and board chair Megan Morris said Caritas will focus on partnering with other organizations’ existing programs.

“We want to build new neighborhood partnerships that deliver more benefit to members of the Binghamton community,” Morris said. “Caritas has other programs that we look forward to restarting and new ones as soon as we’re able.”

Morris said she was proud of the way Caritas served food in the early days of the pandemic, and she credits outgoing development director Kristin McMillin and her husband Spencer McMillin for helming Caritas’ Feeding the Front Lines campaign, which produced hundreds of free meals for people on the front lines of care, and for people in the neighborhood.

“Kristin and Spencer McMillin worked so hard on that effort and to bring their vision to the café at Caritas,” Morris said. “We know they will continue to do great things in Memphis.”

Morris said she was also grateful for the hard work that Brad Watkins and the rest of the staff put into what Caritas offered.

“We don’t know exactly what the future holds, but we’re going to take the time to find the right mix of offerings and the right partnerships to sustainably carry our mission forward,” she said. “Caritas will be back with a renewed focus on serving the community of Binghamton soon.”

Contact
Marvin Stockwell
901-734-8766
marvinstockwell@gmail.com

Fox13-Memphis posted “Binghampton nonprofits feeds laid off restaurants workers after COVID-19 closures” which features Caritas Village.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — There’s something about sharing a meal that brings people together even during tough and uncertain times.

And that’s exactly what Community Center and Café has been doing all week for hospitality and restaurant workers who were laid off because of COVID-19 closures.

The nonprofit has fed hundreds of people so far but they haven’t done it alone.

The lunch rush gets busier every day inside the Caritas Community Center and Café kitchen.

The menu is always different but the moto is the same – pay it forward.

“The big picture here is humanity,” said the center’s executive director Kristin McMillin. “We’re still carrying on through this crisis.”

The Memphis Restaurant Association told FOX13 it estimates about 15,000 people are now unemployed after COVID-19 closures forced many restaurants to lay off its staff.

“Everyone lost their job at once and these are like my brothers and sisters out there,” Spencer McMillin, the center’s head chef said.

That’s why the McMillin’s wanted to step in and lend a hand, or this case, offer a meal.

They started the Restaurant Workers Unity Project last week, offering a free lunch to all laid-off restaurant and hospitality workers with no catch. They just have to show up.

“If we can just ease the burden even with just giving a meal that they can save $10 on that day, that’s enough,” Kristin McMillin said.

They’ve fed more than 700 people this week alone and said they’re prepared to feed 300 to 400 people a day.

That’s because farmers, churches and even other restaurants are paying it forward too.

Spencer McMillin said they’re gotten almost 3000 pounds of food donations.

“I’m overwhelmed,” he said. “I’m as overwhelmed if not more than the community is, it’s a blessing to me to able to do it, it really is.”

In Latin, caritas means “love for all” and the McMillin’s said they plan on sharing that love for a good meal as long as it’s needed.

The free lunch is available every Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Caritas Community Center and Café in Binghamton.

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Commercial Appeal Posted “Memphis restaurants come together to help laid-off co-workers during coronavirus pandemic” which features Caritas Village.

Restaurateurs and chefs across Memphis are finding creative ways to help those in the restaurant and hospitality industry who are now without jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Here are a few of the stories of people doing all they can to make a difference, even as their own businesses are impacted by the outbreak.

Caritas’ Restaurant Workers Unity Project

On Wednesday, more than 200 laid-off restaurant industry workers were treated to a free to-go lunch at Caritas Community Center’s cafe.

The Binghampton community center, at 2509 Harvard Ave., was originally created to be a safe place for people to eat, meet, serve in the community and share life. Since it reopened in 2018, Caritas has operated a “pay-as-you-can” restaurant, providing meals for those who can afford to dine there and those who can’t.

Today, the community center is home to the Restaurant Workers Unity Project.

Spencer and Kristin McMillin are the driving force behind Caritas: Spencer is the executive chef and Kristin is the interim executive director. The couple was on a week-long vacation when the coronavirus started to spread across Tennessee. They left town on March 13, and by March 17, they had turned around and were headed back to Memphis.

“We knew we had to come home and help,” Spencer said. On the ride home, they decided to turn Caritas into a rescue mission.

Since March 18, Caritas has been offering free meals to those in need from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday. Over the past week, the McMillins have witnessed the level of need in Memphis gradually increase each day. Spencer predicts it will only get worse as more restaurants and businesses close.

The outpouring of support has been overwhelming. Restaurants, farmers and food purveyors are donating food. Chefs are volunteering to work in the kitchen.

The menu reads like one at a farm-to-table restaurant, with the names of local farms and restaurants before ingredients.

For meal service on Tuesday alone, Caritas received food donations from several restaurants, including The Rendezvous, Farm & Fries, The Vault and Blue’s City Donuts. The list of farm donations included Claybrook Farms, McMerton Gardens, Sandy Ridge Farms and Fenster Farm. The list of donors varies, and grows, every day.

“Everyone is completely grateful. They appreciate being fed a free meal made with quality farm-fresh produce and meats,” Spencer said. “This whole week has been overwhelming. It’s a beautiful thing to be able to do this.”

Spencer plans to keep his kitchen open for lunch as long as he can.

Spencer said Memphians can help Caritas continue to provide free meals in two ways. “Stop by for a free meal and make a donation or go online to our website and make an online donation.”

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Fox13-Memphis posted “Restaurant workers find friends – and a meal – at Caritas” which features Caritas Village.

Spencer and Kristin McMillin were on their way to Asheville, North Carolina, in an RV on March 13. They planned for a relaxing trip, dinners at local restaurants in the town they keep trying to call home.

But they came back to Memphis.

“When we got to Pigeon Forge, where we were going to stop for a few days, things had gotten really intense,” Spencer said.

They were keeping up with the news, concerned about COVID-19 and thinking about Caritas Community Center, where Kristin is the development director and Spencer was until recently the executive chef in the café, the heart of the center where anyone eats, regardless of their ability to pay, and where festive monthly wine dinners featuring local chefs are a big draw.

“It really got us thinking, ‘What can we do to help?’” Kristin said. “It’s not only the homeless that will be suffering, but the whole restaurant community.”

So they turned around and headed west to home. On the way, they came up with the Restaurant Workers Unity Project, a plan that continued to evolve as Memphis restaurants started shutting down in droves. Then all dining rooms were temporarily shuttered by Mayor Jim Strickland on Thursday.

Now Caritas, which Onie Johns opened in 2006 in a former Masonic Lodge at Harvard and Merton in Binghampton, is serving free meals to out-of-work restaurant employees and anyone else who needs one.

“We’re not charging anyone right now,” Spencer said. “If someone wants to help, they can put money in the donation jar or go to the website and make a donation there.”

Some restaurants were still open when they went to work March 16, with Spencer back in the kitchen to help out. They had decided to shut the dining room and try curbside, still offering restaurant workers a free meal, but it didn’t take. By Thursday, they planned to go through the food they had left and shut the doors.

“But by then people heard about what we were doing, and it was also the day they shut down all the dining rooms,” Spencer said. “And all of a sudden, everyone wants to help — chefs, restaurants, farmers. We have an abundance.”

The Rendezvous donated more than 200 pounds of pork and chicken, so you can get Rendezvous nachos at Caritas. A bin with 200 pounds of sweet potatoes is sitting in the pantry, donated by a local farmer. Around lunch on Monday, someone dropped off bags and bags of deli meat and cheese. Blues City Donuts were being handed out with every order, because they delivered about 12 dozen Monday morning.

Derk Meitzler, chef at The Vault who formerly worked at Caritas, came in with gallons of crawfish soup that will be on Tuesday’s menu.

“I call it my crawfish boil soup,” he said. “It’s basically the same ingredients, but in a cream soup.

“I’ll bring something by as often as I can. Caritas has a big place in my heart. It was here for me at the right time and I volunteer here as much as I can.”

Steph Cook, who recently closed down Rawk ‘n Grub inside Growlers because of COVID-19, stopped in to see what he could do. He’ll be in the kitchen with Spencer on Wednesday.

“That day, we’ll probably do a Rawk ‘n Grub theme,” Spencer said.

On Monday, folks could get cheeseburgers, a Cobb salad, soup, a vegetable plate and a cold glass of iced tea. As always, the menu will vary daily. But now it will depend on what’s been donated.

“Every food company, every restaurateur, everyone I’ve talked to has all said the same thing: What do you need? What do you need?” Spencer said.

Greg Strope is a chef at Rizzo’s, and is one of a small number of restaurant employees who still has a job as Rizzo’s is doing curbside and limited delivery. The senior employee couldn’t get by on the reduced hours, so Strope took the job. He was at Caritas on Monday to pick up lunch and put a donation in the jar.

“The old lady is out running some errands and I thought it would be nice for me to have some food for her when she gets home,” he said. “I got a Cobb salad and a cheeseburger and we’ll split them.”

Sherianne Bangham was a server at Char until the restaurant let everyone except managers go on Thursday. She’s also a Caritas regular, a diner who pays for two meals when she buys one, at the café. It’s a practice that many adopt and part of the way the center, a nonprofit, collects funds.

“I love it here and I’ve always paid it forward,” she said. “I put a little money in the jar today. It’s not as much, but it’s a little. There are people who are a lot worse off than me.”

As for Spencer, who left as executive chef a few months ago to work on a Caritas cookbook, he’s back in the kitchen for the duration, cooking and helping to serve meals from the walk-up windows Monday through Friday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

“When you’re out of work and you can get a good meal free, well, that’s $10 or so a day you don’t have to spend and that adds up,” Spencer said. “So yeah, it looks like I’m working here again,” he said.

And they’ll keep working as long as they can, Kristin said.

“Unless our board or the government shuts us down, we’ll be here as long as we’re needed,” she said.

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The Novel Coronavirus 2019, also known as COVID-19, is dominating the headlines. During this stressful time, we would like to share an update on Caritas Community Center & Cafe and the precautionary measures we are taking to protect our employees and our community members.

Cafe

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cafe will remain open Monday to Friday from 11:00am to 2:00pm serving guests To Go orders ONLY. The menu will be consolidated to only a few items, but they will still be made with the same quality of service and love. We apologize for any inconvenience this may make to you, and we greatly appreciate your understanding.

Events

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all public events are postponed until further notice.

If you have questions about our upcoming Events programming, please contact us.

Venue Rentals

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Venue Rentals are currently unavailable at this time. Any previously scheduled venue rentals will be cancelled or rescheduled.

If you have any questions about our Venue Rentals, please contact us.

The Daily Memphian Posted “Caritas monthly dinner features some of Memphis’ top chefs — and it makes a difference” which features Caritas Village.

In the heart of Binghampton, some of the best pop-up dinners in town are occurring.

Caritas Community Center & Café hosts a monthly Chef’s Partnership Dinner featuring the top chefs in Memphis. With only 60 guests, it’s an intimate dining experience that is not only delicious, but also makes a difference.

“We started these dinners in February to sustain our ‘pay it forward’ program at the café,” said executive chef Spencer McMillin.

Caritas is Latin for “love for all people.” It is the perfect name for the loving neighborhood community that Onie Johns created back in 2006. Caritas Village was built to be a safe place for people to eat, meet, serve in the community and share life.

As part of the “pay it forward” program, the café provides free meals using farm-fresh ingredients for the homeless and under-privileged.

Local farms and food vendors like Marmilu Farms, New South Produce Cooperative, Old World Farms and Tamboli’s Pasta & Pizza regularly donate ingredients. The chef’s dinners bridge the gap between what is donated and what is purchased.

“We always try to give back to the community when we can,” said chef Jimmy Gentry of P.O. Press and Paradox Catering.

When P.O. Press closed unexpectedly this summer, Gentry donated all the food in his kitchen to Caritas.

On Oct. 24, Gentry once again generously gave to Caritas and prepared dinner for a sold-out crowd.

“His dinner sold out in two hours,” McMillin said. It’s an occurrence that is starting to happen for most of these dinners now that word has spread.

The dinners are not an ordinary wine-tasting fare. Each chef offers unique dishes to delight and impress.

Gentry and his partner at P.O. Press, Chris Thorn, transformed the community center into a fine dining restaurant for the evening.

Mitchell Marable, P.O. Press bartender, served a Tequila Bees Knees Cocktail.

“It’s tequila with a black pepper honey syrup, sage, lime and cava,” he said of the sweet and refreshing libation.

The first course was a salad that featured Chinese broccoli. More leafy than American broccoli, the stalks were cooked until tender, and the salad was garnished with paper-thin slices of Asian pear, pecorino cheese and crushed almonds.

Fans of P.O. Press were delighted to see Gentry’s beloved Corn Mash dish on the menu.

A wizard with vegetables, Gentry also served kimchi-spiced carrots garnished with “bird seed” and his play on a Thai chili sauce.

“The sauce is made from honey, preserved lime, fish sauce, garlic, Calabrian chilies and Indian chilies,” said Tyler Jividen, a cook from P.O. Press. “It has a kick on the back end from the Indian chilies.”

Spaghetti squash served with a house-made harissa sauce and dried apricots was also part of what Gentry called his “produce” offerings.

For the entrée, Gentry used Claybrook Farms beef brisket to make a lovely dish served with a farro risotto. The brisket was cooked sous-vide until tender and then finished on the grill before serving.

Thorn, a trained sommelier, paired wines with each course.

The finale was a dessert that featured dulce mousse. The mousse was served with bomboloni, bite-size Italian doughnuts, filled with homemade dulce apple filling.

Each chef’s dinner is designed to impress, yet be approachable. The price for three courses plus wines is $54.

The next dinner will be Nov. 13 featuring Chef Kelly English of Restaurant Iris. Tickets go on sale at 6 a.m. Nov. 1.

“You may want to set our alarm for this one,” McMillin joked. He expects it to sell out in hours just like the P.O. Press dinner did.

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The Daily Memphian Posted “The Memphis vegetable plate: As Southern as sweet tea” which features Caritas Village.

It’s not the first time we’ve teamed up to do the hard work for you, and this time we thought we’d eat a few good vegetable plates and turn out a quick little story for you.

One month, 17 restaurants, and about 100 servings of vegetables later, we said enough already. Stop. We could’ve gone on endlessly as we had only two rules.

One was that the restaurant had to be open for lunch. Sure, you can eat ’em for dinner, but lunch is where it’s at when it comes to the vegetable plate. And there had to be enough choices. Plenty of restaurants will let you order vegetables, but we didn’t want a choice of just two or three daily selections for our meal. It was OK if the selection changed daily, but there had to be variety.

Of the 17 places we ate, we each picked the same Top 10, so we can present a unanimous front on this list. When it came to the top three, we picked two of the same and couldn’t get together on the third, so we have two favorites and eight places for Very Good Veggies, listed alphabetically. We’ve noted the favorite at each place; if we agree, there’s just one. If we picked different items, we’ve listed both of them.

Chris’ Ideal Memphis Vegetable Plate

OK, look, I like greens, and there were many good greens sampled on this journey, from discernibly leafy fancy-pants variations at Char and Caritas Village to more typical slow-cooked-into-submission varieties at places like Fox Ridge Pizza and Peggy’s Healthy Home Cooking. But my confession is that I never get to the bottom of my portion of greens when I order them, and I noticed that we rarely did in this exercise either. If the fried okra or mac and cheese is good, it’s gone.

 

The Best, our dynamic duo

Caritas Village (2509 Harvard Ave., 901-327-5246): When veteran restaurateur Mac Edwards became the executive director at Caritas last year, the food was better than it was before it closed for its remodel. When Spencer McMillin came on as chef after L’Ecole Culinaire abruptly closed late last year, we were given a gift. McMillin has been in numerous kitchens around town and has always done a fine job. But his daily specials at Caritas are just tops, and one of those specials is a vegetable plate. Anything he can get locally, he does, and right now, that’s just about everything. Is polenta a vegetable? As much as mac and cheese is, so go with it. McMillin turns out tender spinach with a light lemon sauce; Mac’s spicy, sweet and fancy (meaning not overcooked) collard greens; cauliflower with Indian spices that is insanely good, excellent smoked mashed potatoes and plenty more, like the roasted turnips and spaghetti squash we ate recently. The selection changes daily and when it’s gone, it’s gone. Favorite thing: Acorn squash carbonara (Jennifer); roasted scarlet queen turnips with smoked vinegar (Chris).

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The Daily Memphian Posted “Kitchen Talk: Spencer McMillin at Caritas Village” which features Caritas Village.

Spencer McMillin was an instructor at L’Ecole Culinaire when he, along with all the other staff, found himself out of a job with a couple hours’ notice. The cooking school was part of Vatterott College, which shut abruptly in December.

Mac Edwards, the executive director of Caritas Village, offered McMillin the chef spot in his kitchen, and they both expected it to be a short stay, McMillin basically helping out while Edwards found a permanent chef.

McMillin also was personal chef for the Grizzlies Mike Conley, so he was busy with that — then Conley was traded.

But along the way, McMillin realized that Caritas was a sweet gig, something that gives the veteran chef access to a steady supply of goods from local farmers, creative freedom, and a satisfaction that comes from purposeful work.

At Caritas in Binghampton, everyone eats, regardless of their ability to pay. Bridging the gap between poverty and prosperity, including food security, was part of founder Onie Johns’ mission when she opened the community center doors in 2006. McMillin is happy there.

Besides feeding the community six days a week, including home cooking Monday through Friday, Caritas has added three fundraising dinners a month. A chef partner dinner has been a big hit for about six months, and next week McMillin launches The Hundred Mile Dinner Series, where all food used comes from within a 100-mile radius of the city. He’ll host two per month and you can find the dates on Caritas’ Facebook page. (Next week’s dinner is sold out.)

For Kitchen Talk, McMillin made a summer pizzetta — a small pizza — with homemade dough, an herby goat cheese spread for the base and a bounty of fresh summer vegetables. It’s not on the standard menu, but he’ll offer it as a special on Friday, so if you want it, get over there.

If you want to make one at home, we’re giving you the recipe for the goat cheese spread. You can make your own dough – McMillin doesn’t use a recipe and has a starter he’s kept going for months – purchase a pre-made one, or use pita bread or lavash. For the toppings, pick your favorite fresh vegetables, season with salt and pepper, add a splash of olive oil to it before it goes in the oven and shower it with fresh herbs when it comes out.

Caritas Village is at 2509 Harvard; call 901-327-5246 for more information.

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Choose 901 Posted “Food Is Love and Fellowship at Caritas Village” which features Caritas Village.

Tucked away in residential Binghampton, Caritas Village, located on Harvard Avenue, serves as a gathering place for people of all walks of life. Since its opening in 2006, Caritas has had a major influence in the Binghampton community, providing a space to eat, learn, and gather.

“Caritas” is the Latin word for “love,” a concept that the organization truly exemplifies through their space. The two-story building houses a cafe and dining room, an art gallery, and a larger event space on the second floor.

Caritas closed its doors in June 2017 to undergo major renovations, opening back up last August with a new menu and new leadership. Longtime Memphian Mac Edwards took over the nonprofit as Executive Director, offering over forty years of culinary experience. Edwards is a founding board member of the Memphis Farmers’ Market and formerly headed the Memphis favorite McEwens. Under the new leadership of Edwards and Head Chef Spencer McMillin, Caritas is gaining momentum as a favorite lunch destination in Memphis, finding a spot on Thrillist’s “Best Restaurants in Memphis Right Now” list. Boasting a constantly evolving menu of fresh and local ingredients, Edwards has certainly elevated the culinary dimension of Caritas in the last year.

“We use Marmilu Farms, which is up in Humboldt, Tennessee. We get our pork, beef, and chicken from them. It’s all grass fed and all natural. We get catfish from Lake’s Catfish down in Dundee, Mississippi. The blueberries are from a neighborhood garden called McMerton Gardens. We would sell asparagus that we picked that morning,” Edwards describes.

Despite the success of the menu, Edwards is still careful to maintain the mission of Caritas, which is to be a symbol of diversity and love, as well as a haven for all people regardless of status. Caritas Village feeds anyone who is hungry, even if they cannot pay. The cafe utilizes a “pay it forward” philosophy to ensure that everyone who enters is fed.

“We feed anyone who presents themselves and can’t feed themselves. We feed twelve to fifteen people on a given day. We do a choice of a house plate, which is a special. Or some people prefer the grilled cheese sandwich and the soup. The customers who can afford it will leave ten dollars for someone who can’t pay,” said Edwards.

By making the cafe a place for all types of people, Edwards and his team have created a beautifully diverse lunch spot.

“What makes our model different about feeding the underserved is that it’s not an ‘us serving them thing,’ said Edwards. We might have the biggest developers in Memphis or lawyers sitting at a table next to two people who ate for free. We all eat together.”

In addition to its role as a cafe, the dining room doubles as a public gathering area for different groups around Memphis. “We’re a safe place for kids after school. There are prayer groups and bible groups that meet here. A lot of non-profit meetings happen here,” Edwards explains.

“Food is love and fellowship,” preaches Edwards. Caritas is using incredible food as an equalizer in the Memphis community, serving up the freshest ingredients daily. The cafe provides a lunch six days a week for everyone, all items under ten dollars. Caritas also hosts Compassion Clinic on the third Tuesday of each month, offering free medical care for the day to the first twenty people to present themselves.

Caritas is currently in the process of rebranding, changing their title from “Caritas Village” to “Caritas Community Center and Cafe.” Their new mission statement reads:

“Why: Caritas Village exists because we can’t imagine the Binghampton pluralistic community without a place that facilitates and models sustainable and positive relationships between all.“

“Identity: Through the unique opportunity lens of Binghampton, Caritas Village is a welcoming community center that serves the age-appropriate needs of area residents.”

“Vision: Caritas Village will be known as a strategic, viable and sustainable inner-city community center that serves as model for the mid-south and beyond.”

Caritas is always looking for volunteers in their dining area. Whether it be running food or busing tables, Caritas will find a spot for committed volunteers looking to further change in their community. Follow Caritas Village on Facebook and go to caritasvillage.org for ways to support them.

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