Kalamazoo Valley Community College Culinary Students Have Quietly Been Feeding Hospital Workers Daily

Havirmill Cafe in downtown Kalamazoo is the public cafe of culinary students at Kalamazoo Valley Community College. The cafe, on Walnut Street, has been closed during the pandemic but the culinary students have been busy. Not only are the students learning the craft of being chefs and food service managers, but they've also been quietly giving back to the community daily.

The cafe shared this surprising revelation on Facebook recently:

The Havirmill Cafe is currently closed to the public for this semester.
What we can tell you is that our students are preparing box lunches for the employees at Borgess Hospital and Bronson Hospital to support our front line workers.

The cafe had been a near-weekly lunch spot for me when they first opened (they generally have different theme weeks with different daily entree choices). Over the last year, since they have, understandably, been dark, I'd forgotten a bit about them. Great to see them doing this important work behind the scenes.

The cafe offers ready-made items including fresh and inventive sandwiches and salads, a salad bar, hot bar and a small menu of made-to-order foods.

The space transforms into a more fine-dining establishment known as the 418 Restaurant evenings, offering

a unique learning opportunity as a student-run operation. Our chefs-in-training are serving regional American cuisine that they’ve crafted with foods from local farms and our Food Innovations Center, our own urban ‘farm’ on campus.

While KVCC culinary students pride themselves in local, farm-to-table quality cuisine, there's no shame in an occasional trip to Micky D's. Here are some items we miss most from their menu: