NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Saints lineman Zach Strief has found an unusual New Orleans restaurant where he can satisfy both his cravings for Creole cooking and his hunger to give back.

Cafi Reconcile.

Strief raves about its popular white beans and shrimp special, but Cafi Reconcile is no ordinary restaurant in the Big Easy — known for famous eateries and celebrity chefs. It’s a nonprofit business established for the sole purpose of giving troubled youth a chance to succeed in a uniquely New Orleans way.

Many of the 16- to 22-year olds preparing menu items and waiting tables at Cafi Reconcile never finished school and some have arrest records. They all enter the restaurant’s three-month training program in hopes they can leave behind the poverty and crime and become a part of their city’s proud tradition of a food and hospitality industry.

“There’s not a great comprehension, I don’t think, of how bad of a life some of these kids come from,” the 320-pound Strief said during a recent lunch of smothered pork chops, sweet corn, collard greens and jalapeqo cornbread. “If you’re not a part of it, if you don’t live it, it’s very easy to forget that’s happening to people.”

People like 19-year-old Kentrell Marrow, who wore a long white apron during a recent lunch shift as he proudly served bananas foster bread pudding he’d artfully decorated with a touch of chocolate sauce.

Marrow dropped out of the 10th grade three times. He has struggled with addictions to marijuana and prescription drugs. He used to belong to a gang and carry a gun. He won’t say which gang, or whether he ever used the gun. He was arrested for possession of cocaine that he insists was not his.

Now he realizes that it doesn’t matter whose cocaine it was. If only for the sake of his 7-month-old son, he had to get out of that environment.

“I was having all types of trouble — gang violence, drug addiction, all type of madness,” Marrow said. “When I came here they promised me a brighter future. They gave me something to look forward to.”

Now Marrow can whip up all sorts of menu items including baked macaroni, shrimp pasta, steaks and stuffed bell peppers. More than that, he said Cafe Reconcile taught him self-confidence and self-affirmation. He said he learned he did not have to change who he was, just become a better version of himself. He hopes one day to open his own restaurant, specializing in Creole, Cajun and soul food.

His is the kind of story that got Strief involved in the program.

The 6-foot-7 Cincinnati native first became acquainted with Cafe Reconcile when he and his wife, Mandy, were setting up a charitable foundation and looking for a cause to support.

Soon after, Strief attended one of the daily breakfasts held exclusively for staff and program participants. It is during these breakfasts that a nun known as Sister Mary Lou Specha encourages those present to share what is on their minds, perhaps things that upset them, or things for which they are thankful.

Strief was moved by what he heard. One teenage boy described sitting on the couch the night before, when suddenly a SWAT team broke down the door and hauled his brother away.

“It’s easy to not realize that’s happening to people and maybe it’s a 16-year-old kid, and maybe there’s no one else there but his brother,” said Strief, drafted by New Orleans out of Northwestern in 2006. “You don’t think about that. I don’t think anyone does that’s not in that situation.”