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580 Café offers warm atmosphere with basic needs resources, mindfulness activities

Posters hang on the wall above kitchen equipment at Cafe 580 Café, a basic needs not-for-profit center on campus. (Nicolas Greamo/Daily Bruin senior staff)

By Amanda Velasco

Jan. 14, 2025 9:04 p.m.

This post was updated Jan. 15 at 12:33 a.m.

580 Café, a not-for-profit organization located along Hilgard Avenue, is not just a basic needs resource for students. To many, it is also a second home.

580 Café provides free meals to support UCLA students facing food insecurity and hosts wellbeing events to develop a sense of belonging among students and improve first-generation student retention, said Jeanne Roe Smith, the organization’s executive director.

The outside of 580 Café, which is located on Hilgard Avenue, is pictured. (Nicolas Greamo/Daily Bruin senior staff)
The outside of 580 Café, which is located on Hilgard Avenue, is pictured. (Nicolas Greamo/Daily Bruin senior staff)

The cafe offers a free food cupboard with nonperishables and a communal refrigerator with pack-and-go meals, along with free community lunches every Tuesday and Thursday, Smith said. A student can eat at least one meal a day at the cafe, she added.

Ana Luviano, a third-year Chicana/o studies and sociology student interning at the cafe, said its welcoming atmosphere eliminates the stigma around food and financial insecurity.

“The fact that they find other students here that live in the same apartment units, or they’re also dealing with the same things with paying rent or having money for groceries, I noticed that that’s a big thing that a lot of students here bond over,” she said. “They’re comfortable sharing it with other people that are dealing with the same things.”

The cafe also hosts multicultural art and wide food selections to help represent students, Smith added.

“A lot of the food sources that we have and food options come from the different cultures that are represented here and the different traditions,” Smith said.

A food pantry at 580 Café is pictured. (Nicolas Greamo/Daily Bruin senior staff)
A food pantry at 580 Café is pictured. (Nicolas Greamo/Daily Bruin senior staff)

Student interns are responsible for preparing the weekly meals and designing activities for 580 Café’s “Healing Justice” series, which focuses on caring for the physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing of attendees. Activities including meditation, yoga, art, music and prayer circles are open to the general UCLA community, Smith said.

Peter Racioppo, a graduate student in statistics, said he is a regular at 580 Café, which serves as both an office and a comforting place to take a break, helping him through his graduate program. He added that he sees no distinction between the staff and customers because everyone is equally part of the community.

“I think there should be more communal spaces,” Racioppo said. “It goes to show what’s possible with a little bit of effort to create really something special.”

Adelle Rodkey, a graduate student in oboe performance, said the staff of 580 Café welcomed her by allowing her to use the area to practice her music. The cafe serves as an accessible stop near campus to aid students with physical fatigue or provide a quiet space with Wi-Fi, she added.

“For me, it’s a nice mix of allowing you to have your own space and not interact if you don’t want to,” Rodkey said.

The safe environment fostered by the staff and shared meals sparks dialogues about the customers’ unique identities, academic studies and future aspirations for the world, Smith said. She added that the organization builds an optimistic and engaged mindset among the cafe’s community to do good and make positive impacts on society.

“There’s people thinking and creating and acting in ways that are possible, to do something better than and bigger than just getting my degree from UCLA and making six figures,” Smith said. “There’s a humanization of it, an exchange of ideas and understandings and culture that really is just inspiring.”

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Amanda Velasco
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