SAME Cafe

The SAME Cafe is a nonprofit community cafe located at 2023 East Colfax Avenue, Denver, Colorado. Brad and Libby Birky invested $30,000 to open the restaurant on October 20, 2006, inspired by their background in community service and a visit to the One World Cafe in Salt Lake City, Utah.[1] The name is an acronym for "So All May Eat", and their motto is "Making healthy, organic food available to all". They offer higher quality food in a pay what you can format where the diner puts what they feel their meal was worth in a donation envelope. They also accept an hour of work in exchange for a meal, made possible by Colorado laws which do not require a food handlers certificate for restaurant workers.[2]

Contents

Economics

They pay about $2,000 a month for rent and approximately $2,000 for the food.[2] Before their expansion in November, 2008 they served 40-50 meals a day with seven tables.[3][4] Since the expansion they now serve 75-100 meals a day. The average cost of a meal is approximately $2 and the average donation per meal determined by a reporter was $3.66.[2] Over time, the average donation has decreased, but it was offset by an increase in customers. They offer a limited menu which changes daily, simplifying the variety of food they need to purchase and reducing the amount of wasted food. They buy from a variety of sources, including warehouse stores such as Sam's Club, higher end grocery stores such as Whole Foods Market and even the Denver Botanic Gardens.[2]

They are open for lunch six days a week and closed on Sunday.

Recognition

On the March 9, 2009 NBC Nightly News broadcast, Brian Williams singled out the SAME Cafe for recognition in the "Make a Difference" segment.[5] That broadcast inspired Panera Bread CEO Ron Shaich to create a similar restaurant, Panera Cares.[6]

References

  1. ^ Gergen, Chris; Gregg Vanourek (December 3, 2008). "The 'pay as you can' cafe". Washington Times. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/dec/03/the-pay-as-you-can-cafe/. Retrieved 2009-03-10. 
  2. ^ a b c d Maher, Jared Jacang (February 25, 2009). "SAME Cafe: The restaurant where you pay what you can". Denver Westword News. http://www.westword.com/2009-02-26/news/same-cafe-the-restaurant-where-you-pay-what-you-can/1. Retrieved 2009-03-10. 
  3. ^ Meadow, James B. (April 18, 2007). "SAME Cafe: So All May Eat; Restaurant serves food to everyone; pay if you can". Rocky Mountain News. http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5490648,00.html. Retrieved 2009-03-10. 
  4. ^ Porter, William (October 8, 2008). "SAME making difference". Denver Post. http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_10663218. Retrieved 2009-03-10. 
  5. ^ O'Neil, Roger (March 9, 2009). "In Denver, a pay-what-you-can cafĂ©". NBC News. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/29604041#29604041. Retrieved 2009-03-10. 
  6. ^ "Panera Cares". 7 June 2011. msnbc.com. http://dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/06/6797708-panera-cares-community-cafe-. Retrieved 7 June 2011. 

External links