‘Pay what you can’ cafes spring up

Pay what you can’ (PWYC) cafes and restaurants have sprung up around the world as a way of revolutionizing charitable food giving.

In the U.S., there are about 50 restaurants across the country exploring the model and these include the JBJ Soul Kitchen in New Jersey, set up by the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation and the One World Cafe in Salt Lake City.

Non-profit PWYC establishments don’t rely solely on the sale of their food and service but adopt a mix of revenue generators including grants, donations (both of food and money), and “paying it forward” where patrons who can afford to, discreetly subsidize the meals of those who can either pay very little or not pay at all.

Working to throw off the stigma of food assistance, PWYC cafes and restaurants attempt to create a community, of both the needy and the non-needy, and serve menus that put them way beyond what could be considered a soup kitchen.

Location is also important, according to Mariana Chilton, a researcher AR Drexel University who started EAT (Everyone At The Table) in Philadelphia. Chilton told NPR, that the restaurant would need to draw on a variety of customers. EAT cafe’s location in Mantua, a couple miles from Philadelphia’s center, makes it an option for local hospital employees and college students to middle-class and low-income residents. and says Chilton.

EAT’s mission, like other PWYC eateries is to ensure that as many people as possible have access to nutritious food. Chilton, though, also had a personal desire to make dining-out accessible to those on a low income. At EAT, diners are offered a three course meal, with a choice of soup and salad, main course including a nightly special and two options for dessert. There is also a kids’ menu and specialty drinks at a fixed price. Patrons get a check, just as they would in any other establishment, but the total is only a suggested price. Only the server and diner will know, in the end, how much was paid.