Food drives, coupon donations, soup kitchens, food pantries...these are all great ways to get involved helping distribute food to those in your community who are hungry. But now there's a way to help that gives you an opportunity to sit down and enjoy a meal of your own. It's a new concept initiated by So All May Eat, or "SAME," an anti-hunger organization which has opened a cafe in Denver.
The way it works is that customers may come in and order a meal, be waited on and eat, then pay whatever they can. Some folks choose to "pay" by doing a little volunteer labor washing dishes or cleaning up the restaurant. Some choose to pay more than the food costs, covering those who pay less. The Same Cafe features simple foods like pizza, soups, salads and coffee and tends to break even, financially. All payments go into a discreet envelope so that even the restaurant workers don't know who pays what.
Another cafe operates on a similar principal in Salt lake City, but the concept hasn't wildly taken off. I think it ought to. Not only does it give everyone the pleasure of a comfortable if simple restaurant meal, it allows people who "give" and the people who "receive" to eat together and enjoy one another's company, humanizing them to each other and preserving everyone's dignity.
See Also:
Five Ways to Go Green for Less
image: J. Knight, westward.com
