OC nonprofit builds restaurant business that provides employment for at-risk women

Cooking up stability, change, opportunity, and employment for women at-risk in Orange County. The nonprofit K[her]ut built a restaurant business to meet the job needs of vulnerable women.

K[her]ut works to uplift women who've been unhoused, victims of domestic violence, those with mental health issues, women who survived sex-trafficking, been incarcerated, or are former foster youth.

They did it by starting a "restaurant platform" creating a restaurant business to meet the needs of women in transition and the instability that comes with it.

There’s a food truck, Savor. K[her]ut has meal contracts and does personal and corporate catering all with these women playing a role and building a skillset to run the business and cook the food.

K[her]ut is "Hebrew for from slavery to freedom," according to co-founder Jody Masquefa. She and her husband Yves founded the concept after decades in the restaurant business and years of philanthropy. 

They did a similar program in Kenya and served meals in Ukraine.

Yves is also an avid biker rider and with January being "sex trafficking awareness month" he took to his bike to raise funds and awareness.

He says there's proof the program is working on generational healing. 

"We've already had amazing success stories. One of our gals, her kid got accepted to UCLA," he said.