At Mueller’s Kerbey Lane, Pancakes Power Miles for Kids

A Neighborhood Tradition

On a crisp fall morning in Mueller, the crimson swirl of a Red Velvet pancake arrives at a corner table, and with it a seasonal pledge: each order helps kids run farther. Kerbey Lane Cafe has tapped Marathon Kids as its fourth-quarter 2025 Kerbey Kindness partner, channeling a portion of proceeds from its monthly pancake specials to the Austin-born nonprofit through December 31, 2025, according to Kerbey Lane Cafe.

The tie-up speaks to Mueller’s family-forward energy and the city around it. Austin’s mid-2024 population is just under one million and skews young, with a median age around 34.5, according to Texas Demographics. Median household income sits near $89,000–$91,500, data from DataUSA shows, yet roughly 12–13% of residents still live below the poverty line, according to Census Reporter. Households average about 2.18 people, and renters make up a majority of occupied homes, reports Texas Hometown Locator. That mix—young families, diverse incomes, and dense, walkable blocks—helps explain why a neighborhood café’s fundraiser for a free youth running program lands with resonance here.

Kerbey Lane itself is an Austin institution. The company opened in 1980 and has grown to 10 locations across Austin, San Marcos, and San Antonio, with community giving organized under its Kerbey Kindness banner, according to Kerbey Lane Cafe. The café says the fourth quarter is typically its busiest stretch—a calendar quirk that could translate into real momentum for Marathon Kids.

What the Numbers Show

Marathon Kids is marking three decades with its biggest footprint yet. The organization says 431,000 children participated in 2024, including about 36,000 in Central Texas who collectively logged nearly 600,000 miles—evidence of a program that now operates in all 50 states and has reached more than 3 million children since 1995, according to Marathon Kids.

Founding ideals still steer that scale. “One thing I’ve learned as a runner is that it’s not just about muscular well-being, it’s about psychological well-being. I thought this feeling that ‘I’m vivacious and I can do something!’ would adapt well to children. So I took what was beautiful to me about running and adapted it to young people,” said Kay Morris, Founder. Marathon Kids

Board leadership frames the program’s appeal in simple terms: “It’s free, it’s incremental, it’s easy, and everyone can really have access to it,” said Chris McClung, Board Chair. Marathon Kids

Those principles matter in Austin. Even as incomes rise, the shared experience of tight budgets and time-strapped households makes low-barrier, school-based movement programs a pragmatic public health tool.

How the Fundraiser Works—and Why It Matters Now

Kerbey Lane’s monthly pancake specials are the engine. October’s flavor is the Red Velvet; November and December editions will round out the campaign. A portion of each special-pancake purchase supports Marathon Kids through year’s end, according to Kerbey Lane Cafe. At the Mueller location, the rollout doubles as a neighborhood moment—regulars grabbing coffee, joggers peeling off the Aldrich Street paseo, and families leaning into a seasonal treat that underwrites laps on local school tracks.

For Marathon Kids, the timing is strategic. The organization’s 30th year brings both celebration and scale, and the café’s peak season can amplify support for a program already embedded in Central Texas schools. The nonprofit’s own data—hundreds of thousands of children nationwide, tens of thousands in the region, and miles that add up to a virtual map across the school year—suggests that modest, recurring boosts can ripple widely, according to Marathon Kids.

Why Mueller Is the Right Table for This

Mueller’s streets are built for movement: trails knit together parks, apartment courtyards spill onto wide sidewalks, and weekend markets bring families out early. The city around it is diverse—Austin’s population includes large Hispanic and non-Hispanic white communities with significant Asian and Black populations, according to DataUSA—and middle-class realities range widely as costs climb, a point underscored by recent modeling covered by MySanAntonio. In that context, a beloved local brand funneling everyday purchases into a free, scalable youth fitness program is less a novelty than a neighborhood logic.

The next steps are straightforward: order the monthly special, now through December, and know each plate puts a little more wind at kids’ backs. In a corner of Austin that prizes both community rituals and forward motion, a stack of pancakes at Mueller’s Kerbey Lane becomes a starting line—one bite at a time powering another lap, another mile, another child who starts to think, as the founder of Marathon Kids once did, “I can do something.”

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