A place where community can grow, a place to incorporate worship outside the church, and a place to eat—that is the vision for A Place at the Table, Raleigh’s first pay-what-you-can cafe, set to open in January. 

Maggie Kane joined Presbyterian Campus Ministry during her sophomore year at NC State and five years later she is working with the Rev. Scott Phillips of PCM to establish the nonprofit organization. 

Kane worked for Love Wins Ministries during her time at NC State, helping to nurture her commitment to unifying people from different backgrounds. 

“If we just provide the place and the food and long, communal tables, and a form of hospitality for people, then I, who grew up privileged, can sit next to Howard, who may have slept outside last night,” Kane said. “And I can learn that Howard and I are both from Raleigh, and our whole lives we’ve been to the same places, and we have a lot in common, even though I slept in a bed last night and Howard slept outside.”

Kane graduated from NC State in 2013 with a degree in international relations and pictured herself working for an embassy. Instead, the 24-year-old will serve as executive director of the cafe—but she refuses to take all the credit.

“I have a fantastic team of people,” Kane said. “This is definitely not a ‘me’ thing. This is meant to be a community effort, and I think everyone needs to work together in this to make this happen and to make this sustainable.”

The pay-what-you-can model has been growing in popularity with the help of One World Everybody Eats, a foundation based in Salt Lake City, Utah, that helps community cafes get off the ground. Since OWEE founder Denise Cerreta opened her own pay-what-you-can restaurant in 2003, she has helped more than 50 cafes by providing guidance and connections since 2006. 

The perfect location on Hillsborough Street became available when Two Guys Pizza closed. Cary Joshi, president of Hunter Lane Commercial Real Estate Investments, is building an apartment complex in the same lot. But because West Raleigh Presbyterian Church, which is located on Horne Street right behind the lot, owns half of the alleyway, Joshi had to consult the church before building. Joshi and the church reached an agreement in which A Place at the Table will occupy one of the two commercial spaces below the residential units.

“We started looking around on Hillsborough Street and realizing that with the cost of rent and that kind of stuff, I just wasn’t sure we’d be able to pull that off,” Phillips said. “And then as we made that connection with Cary, and the project that he was doing, he kind of needed the church to come alongside because his project meant that they had to have access to the alleyway, so we’ve kind of been talking with him and presented him with the idea, and he thought that it sounded like a great idea, so that kind of pulled this together.”

More than just a meal

Kane, with the goal of opening a place where people from diverse backgrounds can find community, and Phillips, with the goal of creating a comfortable space for people to worship outside the traditional church setting, have been working on this project for more than a year.

The pay-what-you-can structure gives patrons five payment options, from paying what you can afford, to paying by volunteering for an hour. Despite some doubts about the sustainability of this system, Phillips is optimistic about the cafe’s location across from NC State.

“I’ve heard a lot of people say, ‘Oh, you can’t do this thing right across from a college campus because college students will take advantage of it,’” Phillips said. “My feeling is, yeah, you’re right, just like everybody, there’s going to be some people that will take advantage of it, but I think college students want to be a part of something that has a broader meaning than simply the narrow thing that they’re experiencing right there. They can go anywhere to eat, but if they can go someplace to eat and feel like they’re also helping out the larger community, I think college students are going to be more willing to do that than your typical person.”

Aside from Kane and one chef, A Place at the Table will be entirely volunteer-run, with plans to implement a mentorship program that will give work experience to people trying to get back on their feet.

“What I’ve learned is it’s so hard to get a job when you have a criminal record,” Kane said. “It’s really hard for people to give you a chance, so if we’re able to be that reference for people, I think it can make a difference.”

Breaking down walls, building community

Kane emphasized the importance of creating a welcoming environment where community can flourish and where people from different backgrounds can eat together while developing relationships.

As Hillsborough Street continues to develop, more businesses and apartment-cafe pairs are opening, bringing more competition to the area. But A Place at the Table isn’t looking to compete.

“If you want to go get your coffee at Global [Village], that is great,” Kane said. “Go get your coffee and breakfast at Global, and come to our place, because Global is so small, and there might not be seats for you at Global, but if you’re looking to sit down for an hour or two, come bring your food over there. We want to work with all the local merchants on Hillsborough Street and be in community. We just want to help them and have them help us.”

Finding funding

Despite A Place at the Table’s flexible payment model, the rest of the world does not operate on a pay-what-you-can basis, and keeping any restaurant afloat is no easy task.

“They say you need about 80 percent of people paying, and the rest will just figure its way out,” Kane said. “I think it’s hard financially because no one’s seeking to make a profit, but you have to be successful. So I think it has been hard, but I think a lot of [pay-as-you-can cafes] have been successful, and minds have changed, and once people start finding out about this idea, I think it can spread and these can be everywhere.”

On Monday, Presbyterian Campus Ministry agreed to a fiscal sponsorship with A Place at the Table in which it will allocate funds that donors designate for A Place at the Table until the cafe is approved as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit — a process that can take up to a year. The donation part of A Place at the Table’s website is still under construction, but donations can be made through the donate tab at pcmraleigh.org. 

Kane and most of her team have a Presbyterian background, but they are dedicated to making A Place at the Table all-inclusive. 

“We’d like to get churches involved, because we are faith-based,” Kane said. “We want to be inter-faith, so we don’t want to exclude any faiths, but most of us come from a Presbyterian background, so we want to get as many churches involved because if we get churches involved, we get a lot of people involved and we get a lot of people finding out about this idea and change then happens.” 

The big picture

Allison Connors contacted Kane in September about working with A Place at the Table, and is passionate about reducing food insecurity and increasing accessibility to affordable, healthy food. 

Between 2011 and 2013, 17.3 percent of North Carolina households were food insecure, meaning they lacked access to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members, according to the United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service.

“One of the things about food insecurity is that it’s not just not having access to food. It also includes not having access to the right food,” said Mike Giancola, associate vice provost of student leadership and engagement for the Division of Academic and Student Affairs.

The cafe is also an effort to eradicate food deserts, or places where fresh fruits and vegetables are hard to find due to a lack of grocery stores and farmers’ markets. 

“Once this cafe is working, I’m hoping to also encourage other people to open other cafes all across food and health deserts,” Connors said.

Connors will serve as board chair, but described her role as a cheerleader and fundraiser.

“I swear she’s my right-hand woman — or I swear I’m hers,” Kane said. “She is just such a hardworking, dedicated person, and she’s a go-getter, and I’m just very fortunate.”

A Place at the Table has been in talks with Feed the Pack, NC State’s food pantry, which is open to students, faculty and staff. 

During the 2014-15 academic year, Feed the Pack gave out more than 7,000 pounds of food and saw an average of 50 visitors per month, according to Amanda Dango, executive director of Feed the Pack and a junior studying mechanical engineering.

A Place at the Table doesn’t want to be another soup kitchen or a shelter — Raleigh already has these facilities in the Shepherd’s Table Soup Kitchen, the Oak City Outreach Center and the Raleigh Rescue Center.

“We don’t have a place for different groups of people to come and not just be the privileged class serving,” Kane said.

A Place at the Table is different in that it breeds unity among the people of Raleigh regardless of their background.

“It’s more we’re eating together because we are human and we all coexist and we should acknowledge each other and not look at the other as invisible — and that can go for both sides,” Kane said. “And I think the privileged — I’m privileged, like I said — I have much more to learn from someone who may be experiencing homelessness or who slept outside last night than they have to learn from me. And so I think the privileged class has just as much to gain as people who need this to come get a meal.”