Inspiration Cafe Outshines Academy Award Winners

The 81st Academy Awards, to me at least, seemed even longer and more boring than those ceremonies usually are.  So much that I found some of the commercials more interesting than the show itself. That was certainly the case for me and many other viewers with the spot about the Inspiration Cafe, the Chicago restaurant for the homeless, founded and run by former Chicago police officer Lisa Nigro.

While the Inspiration Cafe is run by a nonprofit, not a business, the story of how it got started is similar to how many small businesses got off the ground.  Nigro had to slowly expand her work, and rely on the generosity of those in the community to get started:

When Lisa Nigro founded Inspiration Cafe in 1989, she borrowed her nephew’s red wagon and filled it with coffee and sandwiches. A former police officer, Lisa pulled that wagon around the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago offering a little dignity and respect to the homeless men and women she encountered. Over time, Lisa and other early supporters grew the Cafe beyond that red wagon, first turning a van into a kitchen on wheels and then converting a bus into a travelling cafe.

Lisa’s idea, to cook and serve good food with a dash of hope, captured the attention of the Uptown neighborhood and the Chicago media. She soon received a phone call from an Uptown building owner, offering her a six-month lease on a Wilson Avenue storefront for one dollar.

How did she get the chance to have her story told to an international audience? Her story won a contest sponsored by FritoLay to advertise its TrueNorth organic nuts.

"After reading thousands of inspiring stories, our team felt that Lisa Nigro's story exemplifies the purpose of TrueNorth - giving life extraordinary meaning," said Regan Ebert, vice president and general manager, warehouse direct business, Frito-Lay North America. "Lisa has followed her True North by serving others in her community through her selfless and passion-driven project, Inspiration Cafe. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to put the spotlight on this incredible story."

Trying to tie the good work Nigro does with Inspiration Cafe to a line of Frito-Lay nuts is a bit of a shameless ploy.  Comparing the "extraordinary meaning" that FritoLay thinks its TrueNorth nuts give to its customers to the meaning that Inspiration Cafe brings to its community is certainly a stretch. But if it introduces the world to this interesting success story, it can't be bad.

Read some similar small-business success stories here.