The Enterprising Kitchen — helping women transition from poverty and unemployment to independent living.

While teaching literacy classes and preparing adults for the high school equivalency exam (G.E.D.), Joan Pikas grew frustrated. “A number of people taking the classes were close to illiterate or hindered by learning disabilities. They probably could not pass the exam and yet they were putting their life on hold until they did,” Pikas said. “Those people needed another way out of poverty, so I started thinking of how I could help them get to where they needed to be.”

Pikas researched social service job training programs and developed the idea of combining a business and employment with training and took her idea to the Inspiration Corporation, a not-for-profit organization working to eliminate homelessness in Chicago. Even though the fit wasn’t quite right she started volunteering in one of the organization’s restaurants for homeless people and met Kathi Lieb.  The two quickly realized they shared a common goal to assist women in their transition from poverty and unemployment toward independence.

Pikas and Lieb established The Enterprising Kitchen (TEK) in 1996 in a building in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. The not-for-profit operation packaged a line of gourmet grains for area grocery stores.  Less than six months after opening, tragedy struck.  TEK’s building was consumed by fire and everything was lost.  Luckily, the computers were backed up a few days before the fire, so the company could quickly start anew.  Establishing operations in a building across the street, TEK reopened its doors in 1997 and changed its product line from grains to luxury hand-made soap and spa products.  

Today, TEK products can be found in 350 stores in the U.S. and online and generates over $300,000 in annual sales.  In 2005, TEK, which relocated to larger space in Chicago’s Ravenswood industrial corridor, was recognized by the Social Enterprise Alliance and the Case Foundation as one of the five outstanding social enterprises in the U.S.  Each product is hand-made and hand-packaged by the women employees, and each bar bears the signature of the woman who packaged it. More than 250 women have participated in the program and have moved one step closer to self-sufficiency.

The only requirements for the program are that women have stable housing, are substance-free and have a desire to work. In return, TEK participants gain valuable employment skills and are offered legal and financial counseling, as well as education on a variety of topics, including how to create a resume. This holistic and individualized approach to employment and life skills training have helped participants gain self-esteem and independence. 

 “By creating jobs and a holistic job training program that focuses on each woman as an individual, we are really achieving our mission,” noted Pikas and Lieb.