Caterinas Club

Caterina's Club was founded in 2003 by Chef Bruno Serato, the Anaheim White House restaurant owner. Initially, the restaurant informally provided a nightly hot pasta meal to the homeless children attending after-school programs at the local Boys and Girls Club. On April 18th, 2005, Bruno piloted the Feeding the Kids in America program after he and his mother, Caterina, learned of entire families living in local motels with little money to feed their children and no access to a kitchen to prepare food. With the increasing need and swift growth of this program, Bruno enlisted the services of a charitable fiscal sponsor to provide the infrastructure for mobilizing funds, volunteers, and additional program sites. Over the years, with the rapid growth in programs and the need to diversify funding and in-kind donations, Caterina’s Club applied for its own 501(c)3 status in 2012 and received full tax-exempt status on December 15, 2013. The Caterina's Club's mission later expanded from providing warm meals, affordable housing assistance, and job training to homeless and low-income families throughout Orange County. Today, 5,000 meals are served to vulnerable children and their families every night at 128 sites in 30 cities throughout Orange, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino Counties; over 277 families have been placed in permanent housing in safe neighborhoods through our Welcome Home program, and over 950 teens have been trained and graduated from our Chef Bruno’s Hospitality Academy. What began as a hot meal for a child has transformed into a holistic approach to lift families out of an endless cycle of poverty, unemployment, and unsafe housing. Caterina's Club takes a comprehensive approach to addressing the needs of low-income children affected by hunger and homelessness. The primary target population of all Caterina's Club programs is severely low-income children and their families, grades K-12, who are considered homeless, and families in temporary or unstable housing.