Lisa Nigro at Inspiration cafe Photo - Deb O'Malley
When she was in 8th grade, Lisa Nigro was hauled down to the principal's office for fighting and told she would not be allowed on the class trip to Washington D.C. because she was an embarrassment to the school.
Fast forward some 35 years and there's Nigro, not only in Washington D.C., but in the White House, breezily chatting with President Barack Obama as he awards her the 2010 Citizens Medal, one of the highest honors bestowed to private citizens in this country.
Nigro is founder of Inspiration Corporation, an organization that provides a variety of services to the homeless in Chicago.
She is perhaps best known for Inspiration Cafe, a restaurant at 4554 North Broadway in Chicago's Uptown Community. The cafe not only feeds homeless Chicagoans, but teaches them skills so they can find employment in food services and other industries.
It all began in 1989 when after 3 years as a Chicago police officer working the West Side, Nigro decided her heart was in social work, not police work. She left her job and fronted $30,000 of her own money to start feeding people on the streets. Her first mode of delivery was a red wagon, which still hangs in the Inspiration Cafe (see photo below). From a wagon, she upgraded to a car, then a bus, and finally, building space of her own in Uptown.
The Inspiration Corporation now has a $6 million annual budget and four restaurants - two that serve the homeless and two that serve the public to help raise money for the organization.
Examiner readers submitted a list of questions they wanted me to ask Nigro during an interview with her this week. Below are her answers to those questions.
For anyone wanting more information, you can go the Inspiration website at www.inspirationcorp.org. Nigro also has her own blog at www.lisanigrospeaks.com
Where do you get food to feed the homeless?
We get food donated from the Chicago Food Depository. Certain crews of people want to cook here so they bring their own food. We get donations by random people who just come and donate food.
What kind of food (healthy, organic, etc.) do you serve the homeless and needy in your restaurant?
We do have fruit and vegetables and salads. The funny thing about organic foods, at one time, in my first space, we noticed the African American community had a high rate of diabetes and high cholesterol so the café manager and I decided we were only going to serve healthy foods. So for breakfast, we started cooking turkey sausage and putting just greens in the omelets and no one showed up. They like protested and got really mad. So we learned we had to put a healthy choice and a not-so-healthy choice on the menu, because that’s part of the whole Inspiration Café experience – choosing. You’re choosing how you want to walk your path in life. If you choose a healthier way then you choose that.
How has your organization helped homeless men and women there?
First we do open case management So someone can come in off the street and talk to us because they might need housing they might need health care, mental health care, sometimes they come before they get evicted from an apartment, so we’ll have monies to stop an eviction. We’ll pay one month's rent while there’s some crisis situation.
We have a whole computer lab. We have this thing called the Employment Project. They learn job skills. They learn how to do a resume. They learn what someone wants during a job interview and then they get to go to the computer lab and use the computers there for a job search.
We have housing, units of housing. We work with mental health teams, chiropractors come in. We have a food pantry where people who do get on their own, every once and a while can come back and get some groceries.
How many homeless men and women have gone on to bigger and better lives as a result of your organization?
I don't have an exact number but there are thousands of people. I can tell you it’s not always a straight line of success. Sometimes the path to the straight and narrow or security or whatever we want to call it is scary, as scary as being homeless. Being responsible for your apartment, your bills, your lights is as scary as not having those things. So they fall off the wagon and might have to come through a couple of times before they get on track.
How many homeless men and women does your organization provide service to on a daily basis?
In one year, we, serve 36,000 meals. So it’s not just one café. We have four restaurants that work together. Two restaurants are for the homeless and two are for the public. We serve so many different people, maybe 200 people we serve a day. So 50 here at this café, 50 at the other café. It depends on what we’re doing that day.
What holistic services do you provide for the homeless?
Massage. Chiropractic. We have acupuncturists. We’ve had yoga instruction, meditation. But that’s in waves depending on people’s volunteer time.
Does your service include a wellness program for the homeless?
The most consistent thing for wellness would be the yoga classes and meditation. Those are the ones that stay the longest.
For someone who doesn't possess any professional cooking credentials, how did you get the inspiration to provide restaurant quality meals to homeless people and why?
I fly by the seat of my pants and I found a book called “Food for Fifty” and that was what I used for a long time until I had my skill level up for how to cook for a large group. Other than that I just followed recipes and made things up as I went along.
Where did the inspiration and knowledge you could deliver this valuable service to the community come from?
There’s a restaurant in George called Café 458 and that was the original place I got my idea from. They still have the restaurant there but I think they only serve on the weekends. That’s where I got my incentive, drive, training and tips, from them.
One of the connotations about homeless people is that they don't have a lot of money. Is that the case with those who come through Inspiration Cafe? How do they pay for food and services?
They do not pay for the food and services here. They do not have the money. They may have a disability check or food stamps or something of that sort.
Below is a White House video produced after Nigro received her award on August 4, 2010.
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