Alumni Profiles
Brewing purpose: Stephen Kang builds Prairie Solar Café
25 Years, 25 Stories | Stephen Kang (CMU '20)
Stephen Kang (CMU '20) stands outside Prairie Solar Café, his solar-powered mobile coffee trailer in Winnipeg.
Throughout Manitoba's milder seasons, you can find Stephen Kang pulling shots of espresso, brewing tea, and pouring kombucha on tap from his small solar-powered trailer, Prairie Solar Café.
His inspiration for this mobile coffee shop stems from a young age. "I really love food trucks," he says. "Growing up, I would go to some of the food truck festivals as a kid and be like, this is the coolest thing ever, and the food is amazing!" What he didn't love were the trucks' generators—noisy, smelly, and overstimulating. He wanted to maintain the joy of the food truck, while also creating a quieter, more relaxing experience that prioritizes sustainability.
Kang graduated in 2020 with a major in social sciences and enough business classes to almost earn a minor. After finishing his degree, he worked for 1JustCity, a Winnipeg organization that supports people experiencing poverty with meals, shelter, and community.
He started by running summer programming for Oak Table, a program of 1JustCity, then moved into managing all of their food operations. He cooked for around 120 drop-in guests per day and worked with volunteers and partner agencies like Harvest Manitoba. "It was a huge undertaking for a while, but that was where my passion for cooking was realized," he says.
"I came to extremely appreciate the cooks at CMU in the caf... After having prepared food for a ton of people for a while, I'm like, 'Wow, you guys are beasts!'" Kang lived on campus for his whole degree, the first half in Poettcker Hall dorms and the second half in Katherine Friesen Apartments. He met life-long friends from those experiences, friends who helped bring his idea to life and continue to support him through it.
He opened for business in the fall of 2023, renovating the food truck throughout the preceding summer. Previously a vegan ice cream trailer, it already had the basic infrastructure, but there was still a lot of work to do. "The bones were there, but the more I dug into it, as with any reno project, the more you wish you hadn't," he laughs. Kang replaced the floor, plumbing, and countertops, among many other tweaks and fixes.
The trailer—with its water heater, espresso machine, and two fridges—runs on big rolling batteries powered by three solar panels installed on its roof. "On a nice bright, sunny day, we just about break even on power, which is pretty sweet." The mobile café is decorated with illustrations of hands and flowers designed by his sibling and painted with the help of family and friends. "It's very important to me that people feel welcome and safe," he says. "Food trucks' marketing is very aggressive, fighting for your attention... but for me, this business reflects what I want to be putting out into the world, and I would like to put out something a little calmer."
Although Kang initially ran the café full-time, he now operates for slightly fewer hours and works additionally as the food security coordinator for Family Dynamics, a nonprofit with resource centres across Winnipeg providing emergency food, skill-building education, drop-in programs, and more. He is helping develop their food security policies and teaching food handler safety to staff and community members for free. He's hoping to focus more on building confidence and skills in community members to utilize well what ingredients and tools they have, "all leading up to hopefully addressing the financial hardship that is causing them this food security stress." His goal is to one day connect Prairie Solar Café with food security initiatives.
Kang discovered some of these abilities through leadership opportunities at CMU, like being a residence assistant and hosting events. He remembers organizing an especially successful board game night, securing donations of pizza and prizes from local businesses—it was one of the first times he recognized what his talents might be and how they could connect to a career.
"CMU provided a lot of opportunities for me to develop my skills and grow, and I've been able to translate that into my work in social work, but also with my business and the way I've been able to interact with the world."
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