Forging Forward  2021 is a series of six articles about organizations helping our region make progress on the significant issues challenging our friends and neighbors. The series is presented with the generous support of The Pittsburgh Foundation.  

The #ONEDAY Critical Needs Alert, a day of online giving to organizations doing vital work, is on August 3: mark your calendars and plan to be part of something great!

What do you do when you see a neighborhood in need? Some might just drive on by, but others stop and embrace the desire to help. For Mary and Kevin Bode, the call to action came after spending time internationally doing mission work and recognizing that they could be of service right in their own backyard. The Knead Community Café  -- in the heart of New Kensington -- was born. 

“We call ourselves a pay-what-you-can restaurant,” said Knead café co-founder Mary Bode. Instead of prices, the café has suggested donations and customers can pay that or give a little more to pay it forward. You can also volunteer for an hour at the café in exchange for any meal on the menu.  

They wanted to open this café in a place that had always been so open and kind to them. “New Kensington was where we bought our first home and had our babies,” said Mary. Her husband  Kevin -- originally from Maryland -- was quickly embraced by the tightly knit community. “People knew we were a young couple and they would just leave dinner on our doorstep. That’s the kind of community we had. We moved back to do this,” she recalled. 

But to do it right they spent 18 months researching community cafés, visiting them around the country and picking the brains of founders who had walked this road before. Knead Café co-founder Kevin is also a financial advisor and Mary was an occupational therapist, so they wanted to make sure they had realistic goals when they started this new venture. “It has turned into so much more than we had ever dreamed,” said Mary. 

“We wanted to be an economic spark for the Downtown area,” said Kevin. After doing major renovations to the building, they hoped others would do the same around town. “We wanted to show people that we believed in investing in New Kensington,” he added. 

Since opening, he noted that many new businesses in the area have come alive.  He also moved his financial planning practice with his employees from Downtown Pittsburgh to New Kensington just above the café. “It allows me to be close to the café and brought another business into the town,” he said. 

And how has the response from the community been? According to Mary, at first they were taken aback by the concept. “We aren’t a soup kitchen. Yes, you really can volunteer for an hour and receive a hot, delicious meal in exchange. We just believe everyone should eat with dignity,” she said. 

For the past five years, it has been a space where people tell her that they feel happy and safe inside the café. Each month they would also host a free community dinner where everyone from any walk of life could come and break bread together. 

Then, when Covid-19 hit, everything changed. People could no longer gather indoors, and the café had to shift its focus. “This was a scary time, and we really leaned on God,” Mary recalled. Instead of community dinners they decided to do free weekly grab-and-go meals to serve the community. The café distributed 240-250 meals each Thursday during Covid-19 and they are still going strong. “We are in week 68 and have served close to 16,500 meals,” she added. 

But not without challenges. “Our revenue dropped dramatically because of the take out only mode,” said Kevin. “On top of all this, we had to stop using most of our volunteers and only keep a skeleton crew to do the work. But, we remained open and our finances are strong due to the generosity of individual donors and the funding we were able to receive from foundations. As challenging as the past year has been with Covid, I've never been more proud of the work we have done to keep our doors open while many other cafés around the country were forced to shut down. It has been a real blessing,” he said. 

To check out their menu, learn about more volunteer opportunities or how you can pay it forward, click HERE, or do so as part of The Pittsburgh Foundation’s Critical Needs #ONEDAY online giving event on August 3. All donations of $25 and more are eligible for a portion of $525,000 in giving incentive funds provided by the Foundation and its donors. More information here.

Story by Natalie Bencivenga

Check out other stories in our Forging Forward 2021 series:

Pittsburgh Foundation’s Critical Needs Alert

Rainbow Kitchen

Providence Connections

Action-Housing

TCV Community Services

Brashear Association

STORY BY NATALIE BENCIVENGA