Patachou’s new coffee shop is a hunger-fighting nonprofit Proceeds fund the more than 1,500 meals the Patachou Foundation serves at 8 Indianapolis-area schools each week

Liz Biro | IndyStar

Show Caption Hide Caption A hidden Indianapolis bakery does some of the best cinnamon rolls Hidden BitterSweet bakery makes only a few dozen of what might be the best cinnamon rolls in Indianapolis.

The company behind popular Indianapolis restaurant Café Patachou has launched its second venture aimed at curbing childhood hunger and has added a job-training program for high-school students.

Patachou Inc. on Nov. 25 opened Foundation Coffee Co., 4565 Marcy Lane. Like Patachou’s Public Greens restaurant in Broad Ripple, the coffee shop’s proceeds will fund after-school meals served to kids who are unsure when or where they might have their next meals.

Foundation Coffee Co. offers locally roasted coffee and espresso drinks, housemade pastries, panini sandwiches, salad, and soup with an emphasis on local ingredients and sustainability.

Both Foundation and Public Greens also support hands-on education that teaches kids how to make quality food choices.

Patachou also has partnered with Indianapolis Public Schools on the Food Fellowship, a six-week employment program for high school students set to begin in summer 2020.

Fellowship students get paid, real-world job experience in urban farming, culinary skills and hospitality that will provide transferable skills and credentials to help them immediately enter the workforce or pursue a career in the food industry.

Students will train and work at Foundation Coffee Co. as part of the curriculum. Public Greens operates a micro farm and beehives at the Broad Ripple location along Monon Trail.

Money from the operations is funneled to Patachou Foundation, an organization Patachou Inc. founder Martha Hoover established in 2013 to manage the company’s anti-hunger efforts aimed at food-insecure children. The foundation reported that it provides more than 1,500 scratch-made, after-school meals each week at eight Indianapolis area schools.

“This initiative represents just one way The Patachou Foundation continues to create a radically sustainable organization by innovating the traditional nonprofit model,” Patachou Foundation Executive Director Matthew Feltrop said of Foundation Coffee Co.

Foundation Coffee Co. is attached to the private offices and production kitchen of The Patachou Foundation next to historic Marcy Village Apartments. Coffee shop hours are 7a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Friday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

Please support the work of IndyStar reporters and visual journalists by becoming a subscriber today. Get unlimited digital access here!

Follow IndyStar food writer Liz Biro on Twitter: @lizbiro, Instagram: @lizbiro, and on Facebook. Call her at 317-444-6264.