More from the Soul Kitchen Opening

From ABC News (thanks Mys!):

The menu may have gumbo, cornmeal crusted catfish and carrot cake with lemon cream frosting. But the main dish served at Bon Jovi’s experimental new restaurant is hope.

If you cannot afford to eat, still come,” said the rock ‘n’ roll superstar. “We are open to any and everyone who wants to volunteer.”

The Soul Kitchen, inspired by the adage “teach a man to fish” and spearheaded by the Bon Jovi family, opened in gloomy Red Bank, N.J.

With no prices on the menu, the Soul Kitchen provides meals to anyone who has earned them through volunteer hours.

”At a time when one in five households live at or below poverty … we believe this is a time for this restaurant,” said Bon Jovi.

“The Soul Kitchen is meant to serve people in need who will then donate their time. We are not a soup kitchen.”

Bon Jovi hopes the restaurant, which took two years to come into fruition, provides a new model for community empowerement, and hopes to see his dream spread to other communities.

”This is a place for this community made by our community. This is America. We can fix these problems.”

There are also a whole slew of pictures (somewhere around 80 of them, thanks, Catte and Kiwi!) for your viewing pleasure!

The link to the Photobucket album with all these in it is here.

~ Hath