Spring Break
Church next to campus offers food, reaches out to students
Heather Sprigler
Issue date: 6/2/08 Section: News
Sodexho has long been the dominating force for food at UMKC. But students have another choice for a home-cooked style meal.
The Central United Methodist Church, located next to the UMKC Volker campus at 5144 Oak St., has opened its Break Away Café.
John Pinkston II, director of Student Life Ministries, described the new café.
"Break Away Café is a place where for $2, students can come in and get a really good meal," Pinkston said. "We're not talking about pizza and sandwiches. This is just a really good meal."
Break Away Café has been open for about a month, and has already provided students a variety of meals. These include Moroccan chicken with couscous and ice cream sundaes (with homemade fudge and caramel sauce), Santa Fe chicken with Mexican chocolate cake for dessert, Creole chicken with rice and bread pudding for dessert (with lemon sauce) and spaghetti and béarnaise sauce with chocolate and New York style cheesecake for dessert.
"In my opinion, the cheesecake is better than what you get at the Cheesecake Factory," Pinkston said.
The church is also opening up other services to students. It offers a new Sunday school, activity space open to events and church organizers are working on setting up ministries and community service work, which Pinkston said would be available in the fall.
The idea developed as part of the church's new ministry and outreach plan.
"Part of it came from our annual conference," Pinkston said. "We want to do something with student ministries that is new and different and relevant to students. We are in an ideal location and we were missing out on reaching out to students, meeting them and getting to know them."
In addition to being next to UMKC's Volker campus, the church is a few blocks from Rockhurst University, less than one mile from the Kansas City Art Institute, a few miles from the Kansas University Edwards Campus and not far from Penn Valley Community College.
The Central United Methodist Church, located next to the UMKC Volker campus at 5144 Oak St., has opened its Break Away Café.
John Pinkston II, director of Student Life Ministries, described the new café.
"Break Away Café is a place where for $2, students can come in and get a really good meal," Pinkston said. "We're not talking about pizza and sandwiches. This is just a really good meal."
Break Away Café has been open for about a month, and has already provided students a variety of meals. These include Moroccan chicken with couscous and ice cream sundaes (with homemade fudge and caramel sauce), Santa Fe chicken with Mexican chocolate cake for dessert, Creole chicken with rice and bread pudding for dessert (with lemon sauce) and spaghetti and béarnaise sauce with chocolate and New York style cheesecake for dessert.
"In my opinion, the cheesecake is better than what you get at the Cheesecake Factory," Pinkston said.
The church is also opening up other services to students. It offers a new Sunday school, activity space open to events and church organizers are working on setting up ministries and community service work, which Pinkston said would be available in the fall.
The idea developed as part of the church's new ministry and outreach plan.
"Part of it came from our annual conference," Pinkston said. "We want to do something with student ministries that is new and different and relevant to students. We are in an ideal location and we were missing out on reaching out to students, meeting them and getting to know them."
In addition to being next to UMKC's Volker campus, the church is a few blocks from Rockhurst University, less than one mile from the Kansas City Art Institute, a few miles from the Kansas University Edwards Campus and not far from Penn Valley Community College.
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