A Café That’s More Than Just Food
Edison International supports Monkey Business Café in Fullerton, a nonprofit restaurant whose mission is to help foster kids become self-sufficient young adults.
Cari Hart-Bunevith remembers Monkey Business Café's early years when the Fullerton restaurant’s “kitchen” consisted of a microwave oven, a blender to make smoothies and two sandwich offerings — turkey or the Nutty Monkey, a combination of peanut butter, bananas and honey.
It was bare bones but served its purpose to provide a training ground for the teenage boys Hart-Bunevith oversaw at her Hart Community Homes foster homes in Orange. She believed that working at a restaurant would give them job skills to fall back on when they had to leave foster care at 18, the legal age of emancipation.
Ten years later, Monkey Business Café boasts a real kitchen, complete with a grill, refrigerators and three waffle irons to make the café’s signature waffles. The café now serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and includes a catering business.
Edison International, parent company of Southern California Edison (SCE), has contributed financially to the program since 2011.
Read full story in Edison's Online Newsroom.
