One World Cafe

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One World Everybody Eats is a cafe and nonprofit community kitchen based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Its motto is "a hand up, not a hand out." The community kitchen concept is similar to that of a soup kitchen, but incorporates volunteer and common-effort aspects closer to those of a community garden.

1 Operation
2 Menu
3 History
4 Mission
5 See Also
6 References
7 External Links

[edit] Operation

The cafe serves food according to a "no-menu, no prices" model. Customers are asked to pay (on the honor system) what they sincerely believe the meal would be worth if they were to pay for the same meal at an establishment where prices are posted and menus are set.^[1]

If they cannot afford to pay, customers can volunteer at the cafe, doing dishes, cooking, or working in the garden, and they will receive meal vouchers for the work they perform.

[edit] Menu

The cafe serves an organic cuisine that includes vegan, vegetarian and meat dishes.

There is no standardized menu, so cooks are free to prepare their food using organically-grown herbs, spices, grains, fruits, and vegetables, in addition to antibiotic/hormone-free meat, chicken, and fish. Although there is no menu, One World Everybody Eats focuses cafe fare around eight staples; bread, soup, salad, entree, organic coffees and teas, dessert, grains, quiche, and dal and rice. The cafe purchases foodstuffs locally whenever possible.

[edit] History

The One World Cafe was founded by Denise Cerreta in 2003, and may be one of the first—if not the very first—"pay-as-you-can" cafes in the world.^[1]^[2] The One World Everybody Eats Foundation grew out of the concept of the cafe, to promote the social goals the cafe epitomizes.

Many in the food-service industry were skeptical that a restaurant business model that doesn't include set food prices would actually work, but One World Everybody Eats has maintained the model since its inception, thus far beating the odds^[3] articulated by researcher H.G. Parsa of Ohio State University^[4] on the subject of restaurant survivability.

In 2006, the founders of the "So All May Eat" (SAME) cafe in Denver, Colorado used the One World Cafe model as a basis for their own community kitchen.^[2]

[edit] Mission

The board and staff of One World Everybody Eats believes food and our relationship to it can be closely tied to numbers of personal and societal ills. They believe the community kitchen can provide a relatively classless environment for people from all social and economic groups to gather communally to enjoy healthy food, partaken of in a healthy way. Because customers are encouraged to choose their own portions, the incidence of overeating is almost nonexistent, and the cafe has almost zero food waste. ^[5]

One World Everybody Eats pays all its employees a living wage,^[1] although staff wages in the restaurant industry are traditionally below minimum wage. And although One World Everybody Eats is helping to pioneer this mix of altruism and business, it fully encourages others to copy its concept, adapt it, or—if possible—improve upon its concept. The foundation even provides guidance for those interested in pursuing their own version of the community kitchen concept.^[6]

The One World Everybody Eats Foundation has the goal of ending world hunger through the reproduction of the One World Everybody Eats model around the country and across the globe. Its volunteer-training program will certify volunteers in food service and handling, giving them a marketable skill in the food service industry.