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Last Updated: Oct 16th, 2008 - 13:33:17 |
Brad and Libby Birky had a crazy idea. For years they had volunteered at soup kitchens, cooking and serving food to the homeless but longed to do more.
"We at least felt like it was part of our responsibility as people who are doing well in life: We have a house, we have steady jobs," Brad said. The question was how to best help. "We realized there was a niche out there," Brad said. "The soup kitchens cater to the people living on the street day after day, but there is not a lot of programs for people who are working 40 hours a week at a job and are barely making ends meet."
The idea was to open a restaurant for people struggling to make ends meet, a restaurant without set prices where customers could leave whatever they could afford or work for an hour to pay for the meal. Instead of a cash register, there would be a donation box.
The problem was neither of them knew much about running a restaurant. Brad had a degree in computer science. Libby was an elementary school teacher. They had many questions and few answers.
Would people be honest and actually donate what they felt was fair? Would rent be paid at the end of each month? And for that matter, was it even legal to run a restaurant that didn't charge?
But such trivialities would not stand in their way. After several years of saving up money, acquiring kitchen equipment and Brad taking night classes in hospitality at Metro, the next problem was finding a space to rent.
Most landlords, it seems, are reluctant to take on such potentially risky clients.
"First of all, we didn't have any experience," Brad said. The landlords wanted to know how many restaurants they had run before, how many restaurants they currently had in operation.
To that they could only shrug and say, "Oh, none, this is our first."
Have you ever worked in restaurants before?
"Dairy Queen in high school, does that count?" Brad replied.
Eventually the couple found a landlord willing to take a chance, and they signed a lease for a small storefront between a boutique and a print shop at 2023 E. Colfax Ave.
The couple set up a website and began blogging their adventure. They reported their struggles and asked readers to give advice. They found a whole network of people willing to help.
From a connection Brad made at Metro, the couple got their hands on five crates of new china and flatware for free. They got a tip on where to find two stainless steel food preparation tables worth around $3,000 - again without charge. When it came time to choose a name, they asked people to post suggestions.
For every hurdle that stood in their way, for every question they needed answered, the couple found someone who knew someone who had a solution.
The cafe would be called SAME - an acronym for "so all may eat" - and in October 2006 Brad and Libby incorporated the business, applied for nonprofit status and opened the cafe's doors.
If the couple thought the help they received before opening was encouraging, the response they have received since has been amazing.
First, there was a story in Denver's Westword magazine and one in Life on Capitol Hill. Then, Time magazine wrote a piece, followed by the Denver Post, the Los Angeles Times and the Rocky Mountain News. National Public Radio soon covered the restaurant, and recently they were interviewed live on the CBS Early Morning Show.
Of course, even with all the encouraging press, Brad and Libby aren't quitting their day jobs just yet. Brad still works as a forensic computer consultant for a telecommunications company, and Libby still teaches fifth- and sixth-graders at a local elementary school. But each month brings more customers, more volunteers and more donations.
Brian Shald, a 28-year-old baker who moved to Denver a few years ago from Nebraska, caught word of the cafe and stopped by to offer his services. He comes in most days after his 3 a.m. to 10 a.m. baking shift and helps Brad and Libby prepare pizza dough and bake the sourdough rolls.
"This place is really a part of a whole new social scene," Shald said. "It's difficult to eat for cheap these days, and local artists, local bands - a lot of people appreciate that food justice is a No. 1 priority."
Shald says the difference is the respect people are shown at the cafe.
"There is not a lot of pretense to this place," he said. "They look you straight in the eye."
The personal contact is exactly the reason Brad and Libby didn't take the easier route of simply donating money to charity.
"If you send a check to United Way...you never have any idea what happens to it," Brad said. "This is hands on, being here and talking to people everyday, getting to know the people and seeing their reactions."
The people who donate money also enjoy seeing the results, Brad said. And now that the couple has received their nonprofit status, their donors are entitled to tax deductions.
Worries about people coming in and taking advantage of the system have proven to be unfounded. The couple says that perhaps one or two times people have come in and not paid anything and not done anything in return.
"We had a couple guys come in drunk with grocery bags full of beer they had bought across the street," Brad recalls. "I just told them 'This isn't the type of place you think it is' ... I asked them to come back when they were willing to at least work for it."
It is this trust in people that Brad and Libby say is the key to their success.
"Because of the volunteers, because of the people who come in and help, because of the occasional random letter we get in the mail with a check in it - that helps us to keep a float, that helps us keep this restaurant going," Brad said.
Whether the couple thinks the cafe is a success:
"We would have considered ourselves a success if one person came through the door that needed it," Brad said. "Obviously, that has happened many times over."
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