By Chris Dunmall, Volunteer

GraceFull Café is a community orientated café in Littleton, Colorado, a mature suburb of Denver. The local community is a microcosm of all the economic, social, and health issues confronting American cities. Now in its eighth year of operation, GraceFull proves that one business can fulfill its mission to provide a home where people of all walks of life can gather, eat well, and become inspired to give back to their community. What astounds most skeptics is that GraceFull is built upon a pay what you can concept.

After several years of volunteering in the kitchen at GraceFull I had the opportunity to sit down with Heather Greenwood, the founder and co-owner, and discuss how her vision and mission came to life.

HG It is a beautiful marriage of two entities; GraceFull Café and GraceFull Foundation both of which flow from my background. I grew up on a farm in Southern Nebraska and food was just part of the rhythm of our lives. There was always the aspect of bringing people together over food. We had a large garden where we grew most of our food and used it to prepare simple family meals and to share with our community. Our important conversations were centered around tables of nutritious food.

As a child I would play restaurant, but reality led me through college and into professional careers of public accounting and teaching high school. Even after years of working I still dreamed of opening a juice bar where people could meet and interact. I started to think about how I could invite people from all walks of life to come together over the table and get them involved with some of the issues we face.

CD How did the two organizations, GraceFull Café and GraceFull Foundation come together to form the pay what you can model?

HG That is a great question! One of my big beliefs is that everyone should have access to fresh, healthy, and delicious food. The pay what you can model was important but with my business background I wanted a sustainable business that would be in the community for a long time. Alongside the Café we created a 501(c)3, GraceFull Foundation, to invest back into the community. Our Grace in Action meals program gives everyone access to professional quality food. They run in parallel, and neither could exist without the other.

This is how it works. Every guest who walks in the door is invited into Grace in Action in diverse ways. So, if you are in a season of your life where you are struggling, with housing, with a mental problem, sometimes from substance abuse, and we see a lot of people with trauma in their lives. Whatever the reason, if you do not have access to high quality healthy food we will welcome you, share what we are about, and extend the offer that you can pay what you can even if it is zero. The Grace in Action meal is funded by the Foundation. At the same time some of our guests are in a bountiful season of their lives and we ask them to pay for their own meals and if they have a passion to support their community, we invite them to contribute to the Foundation. It is a beautiful increase in action on both sides, sometimes you can extend it, sometimes you need it.

CD Let us talk about the tasty and healthy meals that you serve. You are expanding your offerings beyond the healthy Standard American options and including Vegan and Vegetarian options.

HG Yes, it is remarkably interesting. As I said I am from a Nebraska farm and grew up with a strong meat and potato influence, but we also had a large produce garden and I got to experience a level of freshness in food that I came to expect. Now you can go to a store and get about anything that you want but that takes a lot of cash resources. For me it was an eye opener. If you are experiencing food insecurity you are most likely eating what we call ‘convenience store meals,’ mostly packaged food high in fat, salt, and sugar. At some point in my life, I realized that you are what you eat, and the low-quality food was really hurting people.

So how do you choose what to offer? We needed simple ingredients that were inexpensive, easy to source, would hold for a long time, and were popular with our guests. Your introduction of the vegan breakfast burrito was an instant success. Honestly, I thought it would not fly but I was wrong. From a cost perspective, from less waste, and the ability to store the ingredients it was perfect. We could have it available every day and at an affordable price point, so it became a standard item on our breakfast menu as a vegan burrito or a bowl.

As far as vegetarian meals we wanted to be very intentional about the specials that we offer every day. On Tuesdays we always have a vegetarian special. Every day you can always get a salad, but we wanted to offer our friends more options, especially in the summer. We partner with the botanical gardens and local gardeners to source local produce which we use when we are crafting our daily specials. You can get creative and play around with different things offering exposure to people who might not have ever stepped into the vegetarian universe.

It is about acceptance and trust. I think sharing a meal is very relational and it is exciting to see that when we build these relationships of trust, they get excited. Our guests trust us and step into new experiences that they were not willing to try at an exceptionally minimal risk. It is a beautiful opportunity to invite people into taking risks. If our guests are trying to survive on one meal a day, they cannot afford to take a risk because that meal must be very substantive. Having a vegan option available allows them to step into and experience something that is both sustaining and healthy for their bodies.

Our menu is exceedingly small by design and focused on specials so we can keep everything fresh, innovative, and exciting. We have a vegan breakfast option but now our next room for growth is offering daily vegan lunch options. Again, we are being very intentional and building trust.

People are not accustomed to eating bowls, right? They order sandwiches and hamburgers served on plates. One creative way that my chef, James, has been playing with is, not necessarily vegan, but introducing the concept of a bowl style meal. Then once you build trust you start changing out the components and taking them to the next level. We want to be intentional about using fresh ingredients and innovative presentations to nudge our guests towards healthy choices.

CD Do you carry these concepts into your community programs beyond the café?

HG Yes! For three years we did public schools family meal packages and incorporated items that were healthy. It was fun to build trust once again with our families. You do not want to start with something foreign to them because you know it is just going to get wasted. You are not going to have buy-in to the purpose of the program. It was fun to build the relationships, introduce seasonal produce and use it in kid-friendly ways and take them to the next level with family meals. It is food that kids would not necessarily go for but if you can build trust in kid approachable ways it is cool.

One of my favorite things is when a guest asks, “Did you make that? Can you share the recipe?” It is always our goal to share this food whether it is made in our kitchen or in theirs. There is a rhythm in preparing healthy food and sharing it around the family table. It is nourishing for the body and builds wholesome relationships.

I will never forget one guest. She was a senior citizen who lived alone and for her it was hard to cook for herself. One day she said to me, “Heather I just love trying the specials.” Whether they were vegetarian or just fresh wholesome meals she just loved to try new things. She continued, “Heather, I trust you folks. That is why I love to try new things here and I feel like since I have been eating here, I just feel better.”

At the end of the day that is our goal. We want to provide a place for our community to gather, share a healthy, fresh, and nutritious meal, and feel better.

For more information on GraceFull Café and to see how they plate their food and what is on the menu this week check out: Home – Gracefull Cafe