A Cup of Kindness

How a pop-up coffee shop brings meaning to customers and baristas alike

BY STEFANIE HILARCZYK

The moment you enter Kindness Cafe on Main, you hear the sounds of happy voices, laughter and coffee perking. The smiling faces that greet you are as sweet as the sugar you might take in your coffee, as I do in mine.

The cafe is open Monday mornings from 9 to 11 a.m., and is hosted inside Main Street Kitchen. Kindness Cafe founder Chrissy Rice was inspired to start the cafe, which employs Manasquan High School students with special needs, when she saw a news story about a similar cafe in another part of the state. Says Rice: “I immediately thought, ‘I can do this!’”

Rice contacted Jennifer Dyer, Manasquan School District Transition Coordinator, to discuss her idea. The result? A plan for a pop-up cafe where students from the high school’s Center for Learning and Independence could work with students from outside that program to the benefit of both groups and the community. But where to house it?

The Community Steps Up

One day, Meighan Badenhausen, the owner of Main Street Kitchen, was serving Rice and they got chatting. The next thing Rice knew, Badenhausen offered the use of Main Street Kitchen on Mondays when it is closed. Kindness Cafe on Main opened there in fall 2022. It soon became clear that space was a challenge—regular customers wanted more room to sit and relax while enjoying their coffee and treat (the cafe offers a different muffin each month, along with bagels and its famous buttery croissants). Fortunately, Main Scoops, an ice cream shop next door to Main Street Kitchen, is closed mornings and offered to open its doors to Kindness Cafe customers as well.

Learning Skills and Gaining Confidence

With many months now under its belt, the cafe provides employees with valuable opportunities to grow socially and gain work skills, and Manasquan High School students clearly enjoy working there. For example, “Greeting the customers and taking their orders” are favorite activities for Katie Hallman, whose smiling face is the first you see when arriving at the cafe. And fellow student Faith Turnbach says she enjoys putting her artistic abilities to work running a coloring table that has been set up to entertain small children who visit.

For Rice and Dyer, the biggest reward is witnessing the students’ growth. Dyer says she now often finds herself with nothing to do other than sit and enjoy watching the once-unsure students, who needed to be told each next step, taking charge with confidence. “You watch a light switch on for these students,” she says.

One such student is Jack Miller, who runs the coffee bar and pastries. He says he enjoys “helping out customers and doing good for the community.” Fellow student Mikey Disbrow runs the cash register with a businesslike outlook. Working at the cafe, he says, is “all about making that cash.”

“The Kindness Cafe at Main Street Kitchen is a wonderful exercise by educators from the Manasquan system,” says Edward Donovan, Manasquan’s mayor. “It provides employees with intellectual and developmental disabilities an opportunity to work as part of a team to accomplish goals while carrying out tasks in the real world.”

Rice and the members of the Kindness Cafe board are exploring grant options as a way to expand the cafe’s hours so they can extend these learning opportunities to more student employees.

“The success of the Kindness Cafe is a testament to the educators, students and the people of Manasquan who have welcomed the Kindness Cafe with open arms,” Donovan says.

Sometimes, the most ordinary people can do the most extraordinary things. Kindness Cafe is filled with people just like that.

Stefanie Hilarczyk is a Brielle resident and mom of three. She’s also a children’s book author and has written for other family magazines in the area. Stefanie can be found on Instagram @Stef_Hil.