The COVID-19 pandemic has placed a significant strain on the restaurant industry. Millions of restaurant workers have been laid off or furloughed, and the National Restaurant Association estimates that 30% of all restaurants nation-wide will not have the financial means to reopen.
And while the threat of restaurants closing looms, our Community Cafes continue to ensure everyone eats! Many have reinvented the pay-what-you-can model during this health crisis to offer to-go meals. And, all of our member cafes are committed to their mission and their community during this time.
When stay-at-home orders closed restaurant dining rooms, our member cafes continued to meet the needs of the communities they serve without knowing if the financial resources would come through. And those communities have come together to support their community cafes!
Many of our Community Cafes are serving a record number of guests each day. “We feel extremely lucky and grateful that we are able to help,” says Maggie Kane, Executive Director of A Place at the Table in Raleigh, North Carolina.
“My meal at Taste is the best part of my day,” says a Guest at Taste Community Restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas.
One World Everybody Eats is a national community of community cafés working to increase food security for all by providing a local approach to the global issue of hunger. The organization provides education, networking, and best practice sharing for nonprofit cafés; in order to, empower everyone to embrace the power of food to build community and serve their neighbors with dignity.
“This is happening in pockets around the country,” says Julie Williams, President of One World Everybody Eats, and organization dedicated to supporting nonprofit cafes. “…but what if every community was empowered to ensure food security for all?”
One World Everybody Eats encourages everyone to become a part of the local solution to the larger issue of hunger. Connect with your local Everybody Eats Café (click here for a list of Everybody Eats Cafés), or consider serving your own community and open an Everybody Eats Café. One World Everybody Eats offers free resources to help you get started. Find out more at www.oneworldeverybodyeats.org.
About One World Everybody Eats
In 2003, One World Everybody Eats began as a simple offering in a small café in Salt Lake City, UT. Owner Denise Cerreta noticed her patrons were struggling to make ends meet, and in what she describes as her ‘field of dreams’ experience, she decided to begin letting them pay what they could for their meals. She realized that one in six Americans—50 million people—are food insecure, meaning families and individuals are accessing emergency food pantries, even scavenging or stealing, to meet their nutrition needs. To address this issue, OWEE supports a model of pay-what-you-can Community Cafés that helps communities alleviate hunger at the local level. Since its inception, cafés around the world have implemented the OWEE business model, including Panera Bread and the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation for which Cerreta provided café opening guidance. Dozens of cafés are currently in development. Collectively, OWEE cafés have served almost 2 million meals, 30 percent of which are served to people of less means. Under OWEE’s business platform, each café is committed to serving appealing, nutritious, locally sourced meals with dignity to everyone while ultimately, changing communities and their perspective on hunger. For more information on OWEE visit www.oneworldeverybodyeats.org.
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