Vegetable Kugel will be served at Temple Beth-El’s women’s seder.

Catering is big business today. From small company lunches and breakfast buffets to huge benefit events and parties, there are lots of opportunities to serve outside a restaurant setting. That’s why most restaurateurs open catering arms to their business.

But for something completely different, there’s catering with a cause.

Amos House, Providence’s nonprofit social-service agency which offers food, shelter and emergency assistance, has launched a micro-business called More Than a Meal. This full-service catering company operates out of two kitchens in a barter exchange for meals. But make no mistake; they are out to claim their share of catering jobs even if they do it with the noble calling of giving profits back to Amos House.

They started serving in September. After catering a successful event for The George Wiley Center in November, the jobs have been coming in fast and furious, said Karen Borger, More Than a Meal’s director of marketing and sales.

Just last week, they catered the grand opening of the new REI store at Garden City in Cranston with four evening and breakfast events and hundreds of guests. Next month, they’ll cater Temple Beth-El Women’s Seder on Thursday, April 5. More than 80 women are expected to attend the ceremonial dinner that celebrates the freeing of Jews from slavery in Egypt. They’ll cook at Crossroads and keep the food warm at the Temple. The chefs have shared recipes for two of the dishes they’ll be serving, a noodle-less eggplant lasagna and a vegetable kugel.

In all, more than 75 Rhode Island companies and organizations have hired the caterers, said Borger. Crossroads Rhode Island and the Meeting Street School are clients of Amos House and trade use of their kitchens for meals.

More Than a Meal employs graduates of Amos House’s ACE culinary arts training program. The 12-week program was introduced in 2002 and serves poor and unskilled individuals and trains them in real world restaurant skills, said Eileen Hayes, executive director of Amos House. Some work for the catering business to build up experience while others are permanent employees who get benefits.

Eventually, Hayes hopes More Than a Meal will grow enough to generate profits that will be reinvested into Amos House social services programs. For now they are breaking even with salary and food costs.

“The idea was to have a business that can make money,” she said.

As for the name, the message is clear.

“With Amos House catering, they get more than a meal, they get to help Amos House,” Hayes said.

“People have been willing to give us a chance because of the cause,” she said. But they are more than aware that the quality of the food has to be there too.

“We don’t want anyone to feel sorry for us,” she said. “We want to be taken seriously as a catering company.”

That’s why they have two professional chefs at the helm. Tom Furney shares the executive chef duties with Cornelius Henry. Henry was an instructor in the culinary arts training program, and Furney is a former restaurant owner. He ran Rolfe Street Station in Cranston for 15 years.

Furney said the company is growing fast, and that is challenging. As he prepared for the REI event, he had a full kitchen of prep cooks. Mark Nicholos was making chicken gravy. He took the culinary arts program because he wanted to work in the restaurant business. Also working in the kitchen was Daryl Gregory, whose father was a cook. Though he had some skills, “There were still things to learn.”

“This is what I enjoy doing,” he said, so he is glad he took the program.

Kerri Duarte, works in the Crossroads kitchen, cooking for an after-school program there, was helping with the big catering job at REI as she chatted about being a graduate of Amos House’s culinary arts program.

“I always liked to cook,” she said. So the program was a natural. She and fellow graduates have fared well, she said, with many working at large restaurants like McCormick & Schmick’s and others at the new restaurants at Lincoln Park.

Feeding the body and feeding the soul. They go together hand in hand for some.

“It’s all good,” said Furney.

Details: More Than a Meal, 415 Friendship St., Providence, (401) 272-0220 ext. 250, www.morethanameal.net.