Cafe Via Roma will operate under new ownership later this fall, bringing a new work environment and model to the Jefferson City business.
Darin Preis, executive director of Central Missouri Community Action (CMCA) said the agency's board of directors approved the purchase plan Thursday.
"We are the approved soon-to-be-owners of Cafe Via Roma," Preis said. "I am ecstatic."
The purchase will allow CMCA to begin a "social enterprise" at the cafe, where employees can earn a living wage and receive training to move on to better jobs.
"We will use this as a training site," Preis said.
Preis said the agency's mission is to "empower individuals and families to achieve self-reliance" and it offers a variety of programs to assist those in need, from utility assistance to leadership programs. But lately, more and more programs are focusing on economic development and economic stability, he said, which essentially means trying to help people get and keep jobs, often through increasing employment opportunities within communities.
Preis said Cafe Via Roma will become what he called "a social enterprise," which he defined as operating a business that has a social purpose.
The goal, he said, would be to provide a living wage instead of a minimum wage, though the agency is struggling on how to provide that from the start. Preis said no one will make less than $1 more than minimum wage to start with, but he hopes the revenues will come in to allow for more wage increases as the business continues.
"The whole point is that we want to give people new skills," Preis said. "This is an area where people can get decent jobs and move out of poverty."
He said the agency has been operating internal businesses modeled on that social enterprise for several years, including an in-house IT company called Mid-Am Tech, which has allowed the agency to fully subsidize one of its existing IT positions by the company's revenues.
Audrey Kauffman, current owner of Cafe Via Roma, also serves on the agency's board of directors, and Preis said Kauffman was already looking to sell when the idea struck of bringing the social enterprise model to the cafe.
"She loved the idea," Preis said.
Kauffman will stay on with the business for a few additional months as a consultant while the business transitions to its new model and owners, Preis said.
Preis said any current employees of the cafe will be interviewed by the agency, if the employee wants to stay at the business. Preis said the agency has no plans to fire employees who want to work under the new ownership.
The agency operates the Missouri Work Assistance program, Preis said, which is where people receiving temporary assistance participate in "work-ready activities." He said one aspect of that program is subsidized employment opportunities, where the agency pays for the position at a company to give the person job training and, ideally, the company will choose to keep the position after the subsidization ends.
Preis said some the volunteers with the Missouri Work Assistance program will be brought in to the cafe to learn job skills and "as we experience turnover, we'll move those into paid positions."
And the new revenue stream will allow the agency more leeway on how it spends money and administers programs. Preis said a majority of the agency's funds come from state and federal grants, which come with sometimes hundreds of regulations and rules to be followed.
As for customers, Preis said they shouldn't feel any difference under the new ownership. He said the agency plans to maintain the high quality of food and service that customers have become familiar with at the cafe, adding that there are no plans to even change the menu offerings right now.
Preis said the agency needs to spend the next two months getting through paperwork, such as filing a business application with the city and writing the official purchase contract, as well as inventory and interviewing. At the latest, Preis said he hopes the agency will officially take ownership of the cafe by Nov. 1.
"I see us as part of the economic engine of Jefferson City," Preis said. "We can't do this without the community."