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It’s the guiding principle behind the Lodge—Fairweather Lodge Housing is named after psychologist George Fairweather, who found that patients with mental illness fared much better during recovery if they lived and worked together in a community.

“Something I always tell the people I work with is that no matter who you are, mental illness or not, if you aren’t engaged and living a productive life, you aren’t going to be well,” he says. “We are our best when we are living meaningful lives and our program is here to help people find and achieve those meaningful lives.”

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Located on Bethlehem’s South Side, not only does Fig Bethlehem’s 2019 Social Mission Partner Café the Lodge have a diverse selection of great food and a tranquil terrace in the back, it also explicitly employs and empowers those with mental health diagnoses. The Lodge offers guidance in establishing independent living routines and wholesome lifestyles, providing employment and volunteer opportunities as well as recreational and educational events for its members and for the community at large.

Make Café the Lodge a regular breakfast and lunch dining destination. It’s a delicious way to support their mission!

Cafe the Lodge in South Bethlehem is not only a hardworking nonprofit that employs and empowers up to 18 individuals with mental health diagnoses to practice skills for independent living and competitive employment in the community.  it's not only a place to get delicious, freshly prepared food. It's also a vibrant art space that features artwork from residents, staff and community members, in exhibits that rotate throughout the year.

In a project part of the SouthSide Arts and Music Festival, the Chilean born artist is collaborating with ArtsQuest on an interactive art experience and mural designed to raise awareness of the challenges people face when dealing with mental health issues. Senior Director of Visual Arts at ArtsQuest, Stacie Brennan, says, “I think this mural does a great job of raising awareness on multiple levels; both around the issue of mental health and community awareness that people can drive by and see this (it will brighten their day) but also help them realize it’s something that we are all dealing with in our community. And it will also raise awareness for what public art can do for a community; for people to feel ownership and engagement in the area that they live in.” 

WFMZ's stopped by this morning to preview this weekend's festival!    Alexandra Hogan reports on 69 News at Sunrise.   ‘Calma’ is a 43 foot wide by 35 foot tall painting that is being created on the west wall of Cafe The Lodge. But this isn't just another wall on another street. The site of Quintanajornet’s latest project is popping up alongside a place to eat well and do good. Cafe The Lodge explicitly employs and empowers those with mental health diagnoses.   The Cafe employs up to 18 people at any given time, while the Lodge houses a dozen individuals in the community. It’s all to inspire independent living and employment for those with mental health challenges.  

Renowned mural artist Pau Quintanajornet believes through her work she provides food for the soul.   Her  latest piece promises to follow that mantra, a mural adorning the  exterior of Cafe the Lodge in South Bethlehem that seeks to bring  awareness about mental health.  "I  look forward to this experience and hope to bring some colorful  mindfulness to Bethlehem and its community,” Quintanajornet says.

Quintanajornet,  in collaboration with ArtsQuest, will be creating her mural through May  5 at Cafe the Lodge, which is at 427 E. Fourth St. The mural will be a  continuation of her “artivist” project “Project Wallflowers," which she  began in 2013. It will be also be part of the upcoming 2019 SouthSide  Arts & Music Festival, which runs May 3 and 4 at various sites in  South Bethlehem.

Cafe the Lodge’s unique focus on recovery and art caught the attention of the 2019 SouthSide Arts & Music Festival, which selected the Cafe as the site for a mural by renowned artist Pau Quintanajornet. “With each person that comes into the Café, we are given the opportunity to show them what recovery looks like,” said Cafe the Lodge Director Ian Panyko. “This project, I think, shows that we’ve had an impact and that people support what we’re doing. We were

thrilled. It was incredible to hear that it was going to be possible.

“The community was engaging the artist while she was working it,” Panko said. “Pau fit right in with all of us and it was very common to see her sitting with community members and individuals in the morning having breakfast and waxing philosophical over a cup of coffee.“ There were many days that I would be talking to Pau on her lift when a car would slow down and shout support across the street. This mural was exactly what the community wanted.” At RHD we work hard to deliver the highest-quality services to people in need, and have the maximum impact possible in the communities where we operate. It’s a wonderful and humbling experience when the community responds, and supports our mission. RHD’s Cafe the Lodge is a great example of that. “One of the wonderful things about the mural arts program has been the ability to engage the community through normalized interactions and challenge the stereotype of ‘mental illness,'" Panyko said. “This project put more attention on that, and we have welcomed it!”

Art is doggone good. Just ask painter Christine (Chrissy) Hamscher and Sadie, an adorable Marshmallow - a breed that is aMaltese/Shih Tzu mix - who is her certified emotional support animal.

While Hamscher is the artist, so too is Sadie, as her canine creativity is featured with Hamscher’s in“Chrissy’s PAW’some Art Exhibit” in the Cappuccino Room of Café the Lodge, a division ofResources for Human Development, Inc., Southside Bethlehem. The two-month exhibit wraps upAug. 31.

Café the Lodge at 427 E. Fourth St. is a full-service café that employs people in recovery from mentalhealth challenges, and displays artwork from artists in recovery. It opened on a Leap Day in 2012.

“I’m an advocate for fighting against the stigma of mental health diagnosis,” Hamscher said. “I’m aperson with lived experience,” she said, in regard to mental health challenges. “Everyone is in adifferent point in their mental health journey.”

Hamscher especially likes something Kevin McCabe, assistant director of Café the Lodge, said: “We’re in the same storm, the same boat,working together as a team.”

Hamscher began painting in 2003 in college when she attended the Baum School of Art, Allentown, through Lehigh Carbon CommunityCollege, where she was majoring in graphic design. “But then I found my passion was working with people,” she said of her decision to leavecollege.

Hamscher stopped painting around 2007, and life happened, as she worked in various non-art related jobs and married her husband, Dan.Years passed and the desire to paint resurfaced, and today Hamscher loves to paint in her spare time, as she finds it very relaxing andtherapeutic. She often paints while listening to music or an audio book, sometimes with Sadie nearby.

She paints mostly with acrylics, though sometimes uses watercolor or oil.

“I find my inspiration for art in nature - nature has its natural beauty,” Hamscher said. “I also get my inspiration not only through nature,but also my husband Dan, as well. He supports me in my hobbies and my wellness.”

One of Hamscher’s most poignant and personal paintings is “The Hope Tree,” which she dedicated to her father, Dr. James W. Minekime,who has been fighting multiple myeloma since August 2020 and is now in remission. “I love you Dad, may they find a cure to this cancer andall cancers!” Hamscher wrote in the description. This painting is not for sale.

Hamscher has been on the staff of the Recovery Partnership at the Northampton County Drop-In Center since July 2011, and has been acertified peer specialist at Café the Lodge since June 2014.

“I love both jobs,” Hamscher said.

“Working in the community and also working on painting I’m not only doing what I love, but it also heals my mind, body and soul.”

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PRESS PHOTOS BY TAMI QUIGLEY Christine Hamscher and Sadie, her registered Emotional Support Animal, enjoy a sun-dappled August morning on the terrace of Café the Lodge. Sadie's breed is called a Marshmallow, a Maltese/Shih Tzu mix.

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“I use creating with some of the people I work with, especially at the Drop-In Center. I do projects with them - art projects get their creativity

flowing. We have great discussions about artwork,” Hamscher said, adding they talk about how they decided to do their art project the way

they did.

As a certified peer specialist at Café the Lodge, Hamscher works with people with mental health challenges. “Everyone has challenges

throughout life,” she said. They have peer meetings, and Hamscher works with them to develop a WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan).

She also takes them out into the community for activities, which sometimes could be going to the movies.

“I like both programs because they include everybody,” Hamscher said of her two jobs. “We’re a tight-knit community, very supportive of

one another. We go through ups and downs like family.

“I have a passion for working with people, and being able to bring my dog to work is a plus,” Hamscher said, noting she often brings Sadie

into work at the Northampton County Drop-In Center.

And just how does Sadie have her own artwork on exhibit? Hamscher explained each color of paint was carefully chosen by Sadie by

Hamscher placing a treat in front of the different colors of paint. Sadie picked out at least two to three colors for the paintings. Hamscher

poured each of the colors of paint on an 8-inch by 10-inch canvas and sealed it in a Ziploc bag.

“I then put Sadie’s favorite treats, food and or peanut butter on top of the Ziploc bag for her to lick off to create her masterpiece!” Hamscher

said. “Sadie signed it with her paw print, reluctantly.”

When she’s not painting, five-year-old Sadie likes long walks in the park or neighborhood. She also likes pats on her belly and back, cuddle

time, playtime, nap time, and of course, feeding time.

Hamscher noted one of her favorite quotes, “Pure love is the eagerness to give without receiving anything in return,” reminds her of Sadie.

Hamscher loves that Café the Lodge is breaking down barriers. She noted Café the Lodge’s website cafethelodge.org/ explains “It’s the

guiding principle behind the Lodge - Fairweather Lodge Housing is named after psychologist George Fairweather, who found that patients

with mental illness fared much better during recovery if they lived and worked together in a community … it’s community integration at its

finest.”

“Chrissy is very talented. We love having her in our program, and she’s a valuable asset in the residential program,” McCabe said. “We hope

she’s here for a long time.”

Published August 29. 2023 02:48PM

BY TAMI QUIGLEY SPECIAL TO THE BETHLEHEM PRESS

Kevin McCabe, assistant director of Café the Lodge, explained the café offers transitional employment to people of Northampton County who have a mental health diagnosis that is a barrier for employment, such as anxiety or depression.

There’s a training program and those who are employed there are paid. “We work on the barriers and help them find competitive employment,” McCabe said, adding they provide help with résumésand job searches.

“There’s also a residential program for residents of Northampton County who are low income, have a mental health diagnosis and are struggling with independence,” McCabe said. “Seventy percent of those who are independent and on their own still need support. We help them develop independent living skills while offering mental health support.”

Those in the residential program reside in shared apartments at Café the Lodge or in a single apartment in Southside Bethlehem.

Tammy McCulloch, office manager at Café the Lodge, is an artist herself and will have her work showcased in an exhibit in the Cappuccino Room in September and October.

“We have an art show every month in the Cappuccino Room,” McCulloch, who coordinates the gallery, said, adding there is a waiting list until May 2024 for exhibits. “In the café we display the work of artists in the community with a mental health diagnosis and who use art as therapy. The artists set their prices.”

Angela Lender run the gallery at Recovery Partnership at the Northampton County Drop-In Center. Her painting, “Healing Thoughts -COVID Will End,” which she painted while she had covid, is displayed in the dining area of Café the Lodge.

“Art and music are what I use to stay well,” Lender said.

Lender said Recovery Partnership holds an art exhibit the first Friday of each month from 12 to 2 p.m. featuring the work of artists in recovery. “You can purchase art or come and create during the exhibit,” Lender said, adding 100 percent of the purchase price goes to the artist.

“We’re celebrating healing through art.”

“We’re two separate companies but one big community,” Lender said of Recovery Partnership and Cafe the Lodge.

Cafe The Lodge offers fresh Bistro style food and dine in seating at their location on Fourth Street in Bethlehem. Here Chef Allen Singer holds a Cuban Sandwich,left, featuring sliced ham, pulled pork, a dill pickle, Swiss cheese, and garlic aioli, with potato salad on the side and a Broccoli Cheddar Quiche with a harvest salad which features baby greens, apples, dried cranberries,walnuts,and red onion with a raspberry vinaigrette, on the right.   

For the first time ever, 9-year-old Owen Annicchiarico took to Café the Lodge's Open Mic stage to sing two children's classics. With focus and stage presence, Owen sang  with no musical accompaniment and only minimal cues from his Dad's tablet with the song lyrics.

Courtney Annicchiarico, Owen's proud mom, says this is a wonderful change from a year ago, when Owen, who is diagnosed as high-functioning on the autism spectrum, could not even sit and listen to a performance without getting visibly upset.

"Our mission is to take away the stigma," says Aaik Van Munster, program director of the Lodge.  What makes Cafe the Lodge unique as a business is its dedication to providing work (and a sense of purpose) for those with mental illness.   

While the cafe has a clear mission, it is also a business.  "We are here to attract a customer base," Van Munster says. "The coffee is great. The Cuban sandwich is great. 

Singer, who was the head chef at Susan's Catering where he worked for 16 years, brought his wealth of culinary experience to the cafe. He created the menu (good food made simply and freshly) and trained the staff.