TULSA, Okla. — A Tulsa café is helping sweethearts find not only that special something for Valentine’s Day, but it’s also changing the lives of women recently released from prison.
A cookie cake or a mini pie will have your loved one swooning, but when you buy one, you’re spreading the love far beyond the holiday.
Take 2: A Resonance Cafe in Tulsa is warming hearts through food, but it’s your purchase that makes this a full-circle moment.
The Resonance Center for Women is a nonprofit operating the cafe. Take 2 offers women recently released from prison an educational environment to learn valuable skills in restaurant management, food preparation, customer service and sales to name a few.
The ladies going through the six-month program said it has given them not only life skills but a means for a bright future. Two of them, Kelsi Elliot and Fletcher Johnson, plan on getting their Peer Recovery Support Specialist certification.
"I’m going to work hopefully in a rehab or something when I leave here to help other addicts get over their problems and be able to get clean and live life clean,” Elliot said.
Johnson said the program has given the women so much to achieve that goal.
“They also offer free legal help, and get us glasses, and help with dentistry,” she said. “It's just been an amazing program."
Every dollar spent at the cafe goes back into the program. Owners said it can break the cycle that women released from prison find themselves in, with no money, no job, and no support.
One of the ladies making sure this doesn't happen is Dawn Dittus.
“The women, they learn how to integrate back into society, how to work again, how to have a job, be on time, you know, follow rules, follow orders,” Dittus said. “And they are just really fun women to work with… and I just love what we do so much, and love coming to work every day."
Cookie cakes with frosting and sprinkles are $6. You can also get mini pies for $3.95 and larger pies for $4.95 in flavors like cake batter and chocolate cake batter.
If you want to help out and purchase a sweet treat, pre-orders end February 10. You can order one here.
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