CHATT Foundation reopens newly remodeled Community Kitchen

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) — The CHATT Foundation re-opened its Community Kitchen and Dining Room on November 14.

These areas recently underwent renovation and upgrades. The CHATT Foundation revealed those changes at their ribbon cutting on Tuesday. Following the ceremony, guests flocked to the dining room for lunch.

“During this renovation, we did not miss serving a meal or have the renovations limit our ability to serve our homeless community,” said CEO Baron King. “We are grateful to First Baptist Church for allowing us the use of their kitchen and to our ministry partners who also prepared meals off-site to assist our chefs.”

The remodeling began in 2019 when the CHATT Foundation received a Pilgrim’s Hometown Strong grant. This grant allowed them to replace freezers and coolers.

However, the organization began to realize their need to replace other outdated equipment, repair their flooring and expand their dining area overall.

The new kitchen layout has tripled their capacity to serve homeless participants in a 90-day paid job training program.

The CHATT Foundation is the Center for Homeless Advancement for Today and Tomorrow. They are a non-profit which helps meet the needs of hungry, homeless and vulnerable populations around Chattanooga.

The Foundation also assists in providing employment, housing, clothing, health care, education, job-skills training, financial literacy and life-skills learning.

“We don’t charge anything for meals,” said CFO Vanessa Blevins. “It’s not required to attend any other program. If you’re hungry, well, we want to serve you. We want to get to know you. We want to be able to find out what your story is, and then work to plug you into other operations that we have alone this block.”

The new dining hall will be open every day to provide breakfast, lunch and dinner to those in need.