It started with a single question.
“What could there be that’s in-between a soup kitchen, where people don’t pay anything, and a restaurant that’s exclusively for affluent people?”
That is what Jean Stockdale, executive director for Who Is My Neighbor? Inc., a local nonprofit organization, asked last January during the question-and-answer portion of a talk on food security.
Patrons at A Better World Café, Highland Park’s new community café, say the restaurant is the answer.
“How people are paying is not really our main concern,” said Rachel Weston, the café’s manager. “Our main concern is that people are eating.”
A product of some online research, a grant from a bank and help from executive director of local soup kitchen Elijah’s Promise Lisanne Finston, A Better World Café opened less than two weeks ago at the First Reformed Church of Highland Park, Stockdale said.
A partnership between Who Is My Neighbor? Inc. and Elijah’s Promise, the café aims to provide sustainable, healthy and affordable food options for those in and around the Highland Park community, Stockdale said.
The commitment to affordability is what truly differentiates the community café from other restaurants, Stockdale said. The restaurant has a menu with set prices that patrons pay for meals, but at A Better World Café, cash is not the sole payment method.
Customers can volunteer an hour of time in exchange for a meal voucher, which can later be used in exchange for food, she said. Those who can neither pay nor volunteer may enjoy a complimentary meal option free of charge.
Nevertheless, the café focuses on being a source of assistance, not a permanent crutch, Stockdale said.
“We’re not going to let people take advantage of us,” she said.
Some customers, like yoga instructor Gopali Vaccarelli, choose to pay more than the suggested price for meals to offset costs for others.
“I think [the café is] going to have an effect on the whole country and then go beyond,” she said.
The café is modeled after One World Everybody Eats, a community café in Salt Lake City, Utah, pioneered by Denise Cerreta.
Cerreta closed her acupuncture clinic in 2003 to help eliminate hunger and to travel to help other community cafés throughout the nation.
“There are basic needs. It’s food, shelter, clean water and community,” she said. “I think this is a great way to accomplish building community.”
Cerreta said the community café is a good way for people to come together, especially during hard times.
“You’re likely to sit down with people that you don’t know,” Stockdale said. “You wouldn’t normally do that.”
A Better World Café looks to minimize what is thrown out each day.
“Don’t get me started on waste,” Cerreta said. “If there’s an original sin, for me, it’s that.”
Weston, a graduate of the culinary school at Elijah’s Promise, makes an effort to ensure the restaurant makes use of all it can. Patrons choose their own portion sizes, and supplies like plates, cups and utensils are all reusable.
“At the end of the day, there’s never more than this little [five-gallon] bucket, and it’s usually napkins,” she said.
The restaurant’s promise of good health and sustainability is further fulfilled through the use of only organic foods through a partnership with Zone 7, a company that acts as a middleman between local farmers and restaurants, the help of local farmers’ donations and through farmers’ market vendors’ trades of produce for meals, Weston said.
“One of the reasons why I thought this was a really good fit for me is because I’m really interested in using organic and sustainable methods of cooking,” Weston said.
A grand opening will be held sometime in November or December, Stockdale said.
In the meantime, Stockdale and Wetson are seeking grants and working to find a location outside of the church, possibly somewhere on Raritan Road.
As of now, food is prepared at Elijah’s Promise Culinary School on Livingston Avenue and delivered to the church, but Stockdale and Weston would like a location with a full kitchen sometime in the future.
They also hope to expand hours, which are currently from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays.
Employees and volunteers are working on perfecting operations in the restaurant.
Paul Helms, an AmeriCorps volunteer serving with Elijah’s Promise, has been working with the café for two months to help prepare for the opening.
“I think we’re doing pretty well,” he said. “People are just slowly coming in and checking it out and tasting the food.”
Sheena Brown is also a volunteer at the kitchen. The 19-year-old musician likes the fact that none of the restaurant’s foods are imported and thinks it has a good future in the community.
“The future of it is always bright, because you’ve got something that’s helping those who can’t help themselves,” Brown said.
She said philanthropists are going to help keep the café in business.
Stockdale invites students to help the café. Volunteer positions and unpaid internships are available.
Student groups or researchers interested in holding fundraisers for the café or presenting information on good health and sustainability are welcomed to do so, Stockdale said.
A Better World Café will be holding its first big event, a coffee tasters’ workshop, on Nov. 19 that is free and open to the public.
To find out more about A Better World Café, go to www.betterworldcafe.org, visit its group on Facebook or call (732) 510-1572.
Customers pick prices, volunteer for meals at café
Published: Sunday, November 1, 2009
Updated: Sunday, November 1, 2009
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