Staff Highlight: Josue, Kindness Cafe Coordinator

By Jade Fisher, Communications Specialist

Josue, pictured on the left, joined Ballard Food Bank in June 2025

After 12 years in the restaurant industry, Josue Lopez wanted to cook with more intention. For people that cared about the food they were eating.

It's not that patrons at restaurants didn't care per se - he just felt that his love of food was different from food trends and Instagrammable plates. He recalls the moment he felt food was taken out of important context, when he saw what he calls someone else's "struggle meal" being elevated and served for $50.

With rising food costs, 70% of food insecure Washingtonians reported reducing their food quantity and quality due to high costs according to the Washington State Food Security Survey. These thin grocery budgets and limitations are where "struggle meals" emerged from. So to have a restaurant replicate and upcharge a tactic for survival left a bad taste in Josue's mouth. Especially amidst the reality that 11% of Washington households face food insecurity.

Josue said, "I got tired … So I wanted to go somewhere where food means something."

Now, he's about one year and some change into his role as Kindness Cafe Coordinator. As an essential part of the team, he's always brainstorming recipes with the rest of the crew and doing his part to serve hot, fresh meals that you can tell were made with great devotion and care.

You can also often find him in the cafe or prep kitchen delegating tasks, preparing equipment, working with the team to order and acquire ingredients, enforcing food safety standards, and greeting guests.

That last part he really enjoys. Especially when someone becomes a regular and he truly connects with them. He shares that, "They've become regulars where you're like. 'okay, cream and sugar for you.' You always remember that. You know, when you can be somebody for them to talk to. Or when you can tell they're tired and when they've had a rough week or a rough day."

He recalls a regular visitor's sister saying she was grateful her brother could come to a place that gave him such good food. She was grateful somebody was there for him each day. For Josue, that's the power of food. It's truly caring for somebody.

Josue has an infectious smile and seemingly endless reserves of patience. Especially important when the team can serve 1,500+ meals on a busy day. Though he's working on his memory of names, he tries his best and knows people by face. He's great in this role and some of his favorite feedback is when people feel comforted by or feel a sense of nostalgia for the food he helps create with the team.

He recalls a few comments and summarizes them, "They're like, 'man, I haven't had a mac and cheese this good since my mom' or 'I haven't had spaghetti like this. It's been a while and it reminds me of the one my mom used to make.' I feel like that's what it is. It's just comfort food and there's no elevating it. It's just good food made with love."

This is also why the cafe serves such versatile meals. They've used over 100 recipes spanning 20+ countries. We want everyone to be able to have that moment of nostalgia and comfort. Beyond his role as our Kindness Cafe Coordinator, Josue is also an instructor at Ayeko farm in Enumclaw for their internship program that provides high schoolers with hands-on experience harvesting produce, cooking, and connecting with their peers.

Ayeko Farm is a BIPOC owned and operated farm working to reconnect community members with land and cultures through food and farming. Josue helped cultivate the youth program from the ground up and they ran their first internship program last summer.

You can tell he's incredibly proud of his work there. The course teaches students responsibility, and relationship building with the land and their peers. It empowers them and gives them an opportunity to give the program feedback as well. He really appreciates their input because it "builds up confidence and being able to say what they want to say. We give an opportunity for them to feel seen and heard so they can know that their voice matters."

He's on the farm every Monday and Wednesday throughout the summer helping Washington youth build relationships with our local food systems. The work he does on Ayeko Farm also influences his work in the cafe. That delicious green fish curry (called nom banh chok) served earlier this summer was introduced to Josue by one of his students. This student said it was one of his favorite dishes and how much it reminded him of home. So when the food bank had an excess of fish, Josue thought to utilize that recipe for the cafe!

His connection to the Earth and how to care for and grow your own food is a personal and professional priority. He said, "You go back to our ancestors and they were like 'we grew it, we processed it, we cooked it, and now we're giving it to you. Like it's an honor for you to be eating this food.'"

In May, he utilized professional development funds that the food bank offers to all staff to grow in their craft to partially fund a learning experience abroad. This was an incredibly unique farming and sustainability immersive program in Cuba that engaged with community, culture, land, and ecology from an Afro-Caribbean-centered perspective.

Ropa vieja served in the cafe atop a warm bed of rice

The experience was deeply impactful for Josue. From history, to the importance of Indigenous and African holistic approaches for regenerative agriculture and even recipes. If you had the Ropa Vieja dish, that was a gift from the program as well. This formative experience solidified the power and healing nature of being able to grow and sustain your own food source. While also recognizing food apartheid and the impacts of food insecurity which are felt unevenly.

This educational experience informs how he shows up for our community. Being thoughtful about food from the very first step changes everything for Josue. In an almost energetic or spiritual way, he believes that this care and love can be felt through the food. Because it matters how you grow, cultivate, harvest, and cook with it.

And more than just putting positive energy into the food, he loves spreading positivity to others. As we sit on the ledge in front of the mural, Josue excitedly tells me that the team did an 8:30AM stretch circle earlier today before starting the day. Something that he was happy to bring over from his Ayeko Farms experience. Josue explains, "It just gets your mind right before the day starts and can be a good ice breaker for everyone."

At home, Josue enjoys making caldos, Mediterranean foods like hummus and kebabs, and Central American foods

He says he works with some volunteers who are just as great as his colleagues from his restaurant days. People are so willing to do each task. And starting the day off positively is the only way he can think to do it. There is no way they could cook at this volume without their volunteers and he loves the rapport he builds with them. He brings his whole self to work and you can find him constantly cracking jokes and laughing with anyone and everyone.

And after a long day of cooking and serving, guess what Josue does to unwind? That's right, more cooking! "I like being creative at home. I open the fridge and like to make something out of nothing. Making nice meals out of scraps … and just cooking with intention every time I cook. Kind of just releasing whatever feeling I have throughout the day … It's like a reset even though it's still cooking, like okay, I took care of all these people today. Now let me give myself something I want."

We are so lucky to have someone like Josue on our team at Ballard Food Bank. His thoughtfulness around the food we serve and his attitudes around what food can be besides physical nourishment is inspiring.

He makes me want to, as the youth say, go outside and touch grass. Because the love and care that goes into food starts long before meal preparation. It happens when we appreciate the food systems around us. When we build our relationship to food through the moment it's first planted and cultivated. This philosophy of Josue's definitely impacts the reception of each meal.

Josue brings innovative recipes, philosophies, and processes to the table. It's part of why these meals are raved about and thoroughly enjoyed by each and every neighbor who grabs a meal at the Kindness Cafe.