Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Join us in this inspiring episode with Maggie Kane, a Raleigh native and the founder of Raleigh's first pay-what-you-can café, A Place at the Table. Maggie shares her incredible journey from volunteering at a local day shelter to creating a community space where everyone, regardless of means, can enjoy nutritious meals in a dignified setting. Discover how her commitment to community and innovative approach has revolutionized the way we think about food insecurity. Discover the café's distinctive business model, its local community impact, and opportunities for involvement. Featuring insights into Maggie's background, the café's operations, and the power of communal support, this episode is a testament to the idea that everyone deserves a place at the table.
00:00 Introduction to Maggie Kane
01:30 Experiencing A Place at the Table
03:03 Maggie's Journey and Vision
05:13 The Concept of Pay-What-You-Can Cafes
08:00 Founding A Place at the Table
12:12 Community Support and Challenges
16:49 Building a Nonprofit from Scratch
17:27 Community Involvement and Fundraising
21:51 A Place at the Table: Creating a Welcoming Atmosphere
22:41 The Importance of Cloth Napkins
23:02 Community Advisory Board's Role
25:01 Rising Demand and Economic Challenges
27:49 Volunteer and Payment Options
30:41 Building Community Through Volunteering
35:12 Catering and Food Truck Services
37:30 How to Get Involved
38:10 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Creators and Guests
What is What’s Up, Wake?
What’s Up, Wake covers the people, places, restaurants, and events of Wake County, North Carolina. Through conversations with local personalities from business owners to town staff and influencers to volunteers, we’ll take a closer look at what makes Wake County an outstanding place to live. Presented by Cherokee Media Group, the publishers of local lifestyle magazines Cary Magazine, Wake Living, and Main & Broad, What’s Up, Wake covers news and happenings in Raleigh, Cary, Morrisville, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, and Wake Forest.
26 - What's Up Wake - Maggie Kane
===
Melisa: [00:00:00] My guest today is a fellow Raleigh native who has appeared on Good Morning America, the Kelly Clarkson Show and side note, she's the second. What's up? Wake guest to have appeared on Kelly Clarkson, which is a super random, but also super cool fact.
She's been written about for countless publications. Been a Ted Talk speaker and most recently she became the recipient of the order of the [00:01:00] Longleaf Pine from North Carolina, governor Josh Stein, which rhymes, I just now realized that which is one of North Carolina's highest honors awarded for extraordinary service to the state and our community.
Maggie Kane founded Raleigh's First Pay What You Can Cafe called a Place at the table. Single-handedly revolutionizing how we as a society can do good while eating good all at once. My type of place.
I had never been to a place at the table. So in the name of journalistic research and a hungry Stomach, I took my sons to see for ourselves what Maggie has created. We as well as everyone who walked through the door were greeted with a warm smile and told how the pay structure works, which we'll get into a little bit later.
I ordered the fried green tomato, pimento cheese and bacon sandwich. And I'm not just saying this because I'm currently sitting across from the owner. It was the best [00:02:00] sandwich I've had in a long time. Once I finished devouring it, I paused to look around the line to order never waned. And while it's not easy to visually identify if a person is food insecure, I did get the feeling that the majority of the fellow diners were regulars at a place at the table.
Local homeless or food insecure individuals and families. That's the whole point of a place at the table whose mission is to provide community and good food to all, regardless of means. Maggie understands that it's not just about the food, it's about allowing people to feel like they belong and deserve a good meal.
Not just one being handed, you know, a plate of food, like you're going like a soup kitchen. Mm-hmm. Or something like that. Mm-hmm. And nothing against that whatsoever, but this place is different. She's helping the homeless and underserved community feel seen and loved one thing's for sure.[00:03:00]
Everyone in our community has a place at her table. Please welcome to What's up, wake founder and executive director of a place at the table, Maggie Kane. Hi Maggie. Hi. So happy to be here with you. It was super, I had to warn, I had to warn Maggie that the introduction was gonna be a little bit long, but it really is a lot to encompass.
Mm-hmm. Because you as a person have achieved so much. Mm-hmm. And a place at the table is such a unique place in Raleigh. In our state. Mm-hmm. There's only a couple of these pay what you can cafes in the entire state. Is that right? That's
Maggie Kane: right, yes. And yes, I always say that it is a long description because it is a confusing thing mm-hmm.
Until you step foot inside, which I'm so glad you came. And yes, that sandwich is one of the best, you can't go wrong with cino cheese,
Melisa: so, and a fried green tomato and Oh my gosh. I'm telling y'all it was really good. And I, I didn't even mention that I had the side salad. Oh yeah. But that's because the greeter told me that the, the dressings are homemade.
Yep. And then I found out that the croutons are homemade too. Yeah. And I was just like, well, [00:04:00] now I'm gonna have to make homemade croutons every time I make a salad because
Maggie Kane: it's elite. It made a
Melisa: huge difference.
Maggie Kane: Yes, it's elite. It's so good. Yeah. And like and, and also, I don't know if she told you, but the greens are from Raleigh City Farm, so Oh, I did not
Melisa: realize that.
Yep.
Maggie Kane: So Raleigh City Farm of. A local downtown Raleigh farm. Mm-hmm. Urban farm, they donate all of their produce greens that we use in house. Pretty much all. We have, we have a couple other things, but they do a phenomenal job and they donate it and we get this fantastic salad. Wow. Yeah. That's amazing.
So, but yes, so walking in and seeing it, it makes so much more sense than, than reading about it. Absolutely. But it does take a while to explain. Yes. So,
Melisa: yeah, and I, I really, truly encourage everybody listening to go check it out because. It is a, I just, I didn't know what to picture. Yeah. But it is, it's truly like walking into a cute downtown Raleigh cafe.
Yeah. Yeah. Or downtown
Maggie Kane: c or, you know, anywhere. Yeah. There's so many. Exactly. I always say that it, it's, it's picture walking into your [00:05:00] favorite cafe, favorite restaurant. Mm-hmm. It's just like that. You see fun photos, you hear good music, you smell good food. It's only until you get up to the register or have been door greeted and under and you understand the mission that you do start to see that it's different.
Melisa: So let's take a step back. Yeah. I mentioned that you're from Raleigh. Mm-hmm. You're an NC State grad. Yep. Did you always plan on going into the nonprofit world, or how did, how did this come to be?
Maggie Kane: Sure. Yeah, great question. No, not at all. I have always thought that a part of my life would be, would be working with folks in different capacities, whether it be volunteering at places, sitting on boards.
I knew that that would happen. I grew up volunteering here with my mom and my twin sister in various soup kitchens, food banks. We did a, we did a lot of. That work. But I did not think that this would be my life work after school. I actually ended up going to NC State was so grateful and, and still so grateful to have gone to state.
I loved it. And went to state and my degree was [00:06:00] actually in international relations, Italian and business. So I'm thinking I am moving abroad. I, I had this. I, I'm from Raleigh and get out. Yeah. You're gonna have Italian life. I'm gonna, yeah. I'm gonna marry a attractive Italian man. I'm gonna drink lots of wine.
Right. I always say like, there's still time, right? Yeah. You're still young, so right's, right? That's right. But I, yeah, I thought I would, I would move abroad and I, I spoke Italian at the time and, and so I thought, yeah, like this is, I wanna do, I wanna work for an embassy. I wanna teach English. There's something I wanna do that's abroad and get outta Raleigh.
Mm-hmm. I started my junior year of college. I started volunteering at a day shelter, working with folks on the street. So folks experiencing homelessness could come in every day and get a cup of water, get outta the heat do laundry, get a peanut butter and jelly sandwich if they were hungry, and just have this respite.
So they didn't sleep there. It was a day shelter for folks just to come in the day, which I, I do want to insert
Melisa: that. Homeless shelters for the most part, you're not allowed to stay there during the day. That's right. It is just That's right. For [00:07:00] night. So where, that's right. You went, it was really a, a, a respite during the day.
Respite the day. Mm-hmm. Exactly.
Maggie Kane: I think one of the misconceptions about folks experiencing homelessness is that they have places to go during the day, but. They don't, no, there isn't, there aren't not even public restrooms anywhere. True. So it, it's hard to find a place just to be, get outta the heat.
We, whatever it may be, do laundry, but also, but also like, get your life back together. Mm-hmm. And in order and take care of the things you have to take care of. So we were that place where folks could come and so I would, I started volunteering there and, and I. Fast forward. I, I kept volunteering there.
I loved the work so much. It didn't feel like work to me when I graduated college. I'm still looking at embassy work. I'm still looking at, you know, different nonprofits or English teaching, English abroad jobs. And I applied for some, but at my college graduation, about 10 folks from the day shelter came, cheered me on, celebrated me, were there.
And I just knew that that was the work I needed to do for a while. Yeah. And so I stayed and I, I took over this job, running this shelter and, and the rest is history. [00:08:00]
Melisa: So how did this transition in into creating a place at the table, and why not create another? Regular soup kitchen. Yeah. Or a, a brown bag place.
Sure. Just to feed folks, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Maggie Kane: So I guess, so I'm at this, I'm at the day shelter working. And for me, I love, I really, truly believe I was put on this earth. To love people and make people feel loved. Mm-hmm. The way people have made me feel loved and so I, I believe so wholeheartedly in, in getting to know folks, building relationships, building community to my core community building is, is just what I know and what I love and what I want to see for the world.
And so I am at this day shelter and I'm getting to know folks even more. And for me, getting to know folks is done through food. So, so, so. With my friends and folks from college and and family, we would go out to eat and we would spend hours chatting, getting to know each other. And so similarly at the day shelter, I wanted to get to know folks even more rather than just coming in, doing laundry and [00:09:00] then moving on.
Mm-hmm. So I started going out for meals with folks, and that meant we ended up at the soup kitchen just as you were talking about. And we'd sit in line and we'd get inside. We'd have to eat really quickly because. They're feeding 300 people in an hour. Oh wow. They're doing really intentional, like food work, they're feeding folks.
But it didn't leave much time to get to know folks and be with folks. And so, I selfishly wanted more time, so I started taking folks out for meals and we went to. We ended up going to Golden Corral, k and w Ca Cafeteria, which I don't think exists anymore. I'm so bummed
Melisa: about
Maggie Kane: that. It was so, I wish they would
Melisa: bring K and W.
K and S back,
Maggie Kane: RIPK and W, right? Wasn't it? Yeah, it was. It was. Yeah. Awesome. That's where we went
Melisa: every Sunday after church was KW, I mean,
Maggie Kane: yeah. What was your favorite thing there? You got the, you walked through the line and get the fried chicken and the Oh, yep. Exactly.
Melisa: Yep. Always get a
Maggie Kane: dessert too. Yep. But what is so special about those places?
And why, why my friends from the day shelter would choose it is my friend John changed my life forever. When, when I asked him, I said, John, you've wanted to come to Golden Corral two, three times Now [00:10:00] why? Is it because you're really hungry? Is it, 'cause you've been, you've slept outside for a couple nights in a row and you're hungry.
And he said, no, Maggie. Oh, sure, yes, I'm, I'm hungry. I'm excited to eat. But really there's two reasons. First, I have choice. He said, people make every choice for me from where I sleep to what I eat here. I get to choose. I can choose if I want the fried chicken or if I want a salad, I get to choose this. He said The second more important is that people, since I've been sleeping outside the past couple months, people treat me as invisible.
They ignore me. They don't see me. Yeah. I'm not human. He said here I'm seen, I'm valued. I, I, I, I have value. They come and ask if I need a refill. Face, say bye. As I'm leaving, I'm, I'm really seen here. And that was that mic drop moment for me, for where I said, we've gotta create a place where, where people have choice and people feel seen.
Mm-hmm. I researched everything from, like you said, food banks, soup, kitchens, nonprofits, rest for-profit restaurants. Anything that, that I just started, you know, churches, faith communities and I found the pay what you can system. And so you you had alluded to it earlier, [00:11:00] Melissa. Yes. Of that. There are a couple, there is one in North Carolina called Farm Cafe Feed all regardless of means.
And then there's about 10 across the country. And that's in
Melisa: Boone?
Maggie Kane: It's in Boone. Okay. Exactly. And so I said, okay, if they can do this, like let's go see, let's go see what it's like. Went to visit, brought a couple different people with me over the. Period of a couple months and, and said, do you think we could build something like this in Raleigh?
And no one said, no. People said, yeah, let's, let's go. Let's do it. Okay. And so fast forward this was end of 2014. We incorporated as a lc. We applied for nonprofit status in end of 2014, early 2015, and opened three and a half years later in January of 2018. As Raleigh's first pay what you can restaurant.
So Farm, cafe and Boone has been a huge like mentor cafe to us. Mm-hmm. The cool thing about the pay what you can cafe movement. Is that they're all different. So if you go to Farm Cafe in Boone, it's phenomenal. The food is fantastic. But it looks so different than Raleigh and it, and [00:12:00] that makes sense.
Mm-hmm. It is. They fit the cities they're in.
Melisa: Yeah. Yeah.
Maggie Kane: And so it's been really fun to be friends with them and learn from them. And, and, and similarly with other restaurants, pay what you can restaurants across the country.
Melisa: I wanna talk about the gumption that it takes.
To even start something like this. Mm. Because I know a lot of people myself included. I've thought for so long I'd love to do X, Y, and Z. Yeah. Help my community in, in some sort of way. Give back. There's so much red tape. It seems impossible when you know, you start thinking about wanting to do something.
Sure. Yeah. So how did you get that? Oomph to, to actually follow through with it.
Maggie Kane: Yeah. I love that question. And you are, do, I mean, doing a podcast like this and sharing stories with the world is doing something, so, well, thank you. Thank you for sharing her story. So
Melisa: in other words,
Maggie Kane: you're calling me a
Melisa: hero
Maggie Kane: and I, Sarah, you're my hero.
Thank you, Matt, your daughter walked out the room. Exactly. Yeah. Say that again when she comes back. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. [00:13:00] No, I, it's so funny. I think back to that time and I think like, why did I do that? It's kind of like lunatic, like, what was I thinking? Mm-hmm. I was like 23 years old, 24 years old. And but I think it goes back to two things.
I think first is a deep belief in community. A deep belief in relationship building. A deep belief in, as I said earlier, making people feel loved and creating space for people. I had seen, you know, the story of John and the story of choice and, and being seen. I saw that there were really great places for people with money, and then there are really great places for people without money.
There was no place that welcomed everyone together in this. Space. Yeah. And I felt like I was living these two different worlds. I was living one world at the day, shelter with fantastic humans, and then I was living one world and with friends and family and, and, and, you know, this whole community of people where we would go anywhere we wanted and, and these worlds didn't intersect.
And so this deep belief that I wanted these folks to intersect and meet each other and I wanted this like in this deep belief of making people feel loved, cared for, seen, et [00:14:00] cetera. I think the second thing which is. The biggest part of this whole story of a place at the table is the community.
The community believed in it. They continued to believe in it. They continue to believe in it today. No one, you know, I, I talk about how I brought people up to Farm Cafe to see it. And everyone said, let's go. No one said, no, that's not gonna work. Mm-hmm. And, and so, and, and even like, sure, I got a couple no's in the beginning, but everyone said that's really awesome and, and keep me posted if it happens.
I may not be able to fund you, I may not be able to, to help you right now, but it's really awesome. I think it could be really beneficial to the city. So the amount of folks that stepped in to help. In the places that they are you know, in with their experience, with their lived experience, with their expertise, like made the hugest difference and every, and people just believed in it.
And they said like, let's go, let's do this. And so when you take those two things, a passion, and you take community, community belief in this it goes a far away, it goes a long way.
Melisa: And to circle back to the fact that your mom. Took you and your [00:15:00] sister to volunteer growing up. That's right. It, it sounds like she really instilled in you guys a sense of service and how important that is for
Maggie Kane: sure.
Mm-hmm.
Melisa: From, I mean, I'm,
Maggie Kane: I'm the luckiest human in the world to have a mom that this is what she believed in. Mm-hmm. And we're people of faith and I think that that helps too. Definitely. Yeah. Mm-hmm. You have a higher purpose and you have a higher purs purpose to love people and be called to love people.
But I'm just, yeah. I'm so lucky to have such a great support system. I, I from Raleigh, my family still lives here, my sister and a brother and mom, and so it's been a really nice to have a, a supportive, you know, group of people that whether it be my family and the community that believe in this and continue to, to make it happen.
Melisa: Mm-hmm. [00:16:00] When you started at the beginning. We kind of skirted over how, you know, the, the startup mm-hmm. Itself is costly. Yeah. Yeah. How does one go about starting a nonprofit? So that we can, you know, yeah. Carry on the mission of helping more people. Do you, do you apply for grants? What, what does, what does this even look like, look like?
I have no idea.
Maggie Kane: Yeah. Great question. I had no idea either. Yeah. And
Melisa: so I also want to note, yeah. You were, you were fresh outta college. Yeah. Back in the days when you were thinking, you know, you're invincible. Anything's possible. The world's at, you know, that's right. That could do anything. So that, that probably goes into play a little bit.
It does. Yes.
Maggie Kane: No, it totally does. You're brave. It totally does. Yeah. Fearless for sure. Mm-hmm. I, so how does one go about it and how we went [00:17:00] about it? I guess I can talk from our experience that it, it, number one, community, the community helped us. So we found, we found someone. Well, I'll back up even more.
We, we are visiting this pay Whatchu Can Cafe in Boone Farm Cafe. They're starting to mentor us. We create a small vision team from Raleigh that says, okay, what do we want this place to look like? And so, so we pulled in different people with different expertise. So someone who had started a nonprofit before, someone who had started a restaurant before, someone who had lived experience, someone who was a lawyer and, and someone who was an accountant.
So all these folks that had this lived experience, you think I knew how to. Run a, create a budget or run a p and l? No. Did I know how to write legal documents and apply for nonprofit status? No. So we pulled in all these people with d these different expertise. So kind of
Melisa: like a board? The
Maggie Kane: board, yeah.
Mm-hmm. It was a vision team of like, what do we want this place to look like? That then merged into a board of directors, some states, some left and then the board of directors and I'll, at the same time, I'll tell you, Google. So powerful. Yes. And now, now whoever's starting a nonprofit [00:18:00] now, like you got ai, you'll be fine.
True. You know? Yes. So, so Google was our best friend. Mm-hmm. And we just, we, we figured it out with all of these folks', expertise and, and someone who had already done this work in a nonprofit, you know, creating a nonprofit before. And I'm a big believer in, in. N there are not many ideas that are new ideas.
Like we don't have to recreate the wheel. Like what is that saying? Like, yeah. You don't have
Melisa: to recreate the wheel. I think that's right. Then
Maggie Kane: recreate the wheel. Yeah. Sounds weird. Say allows, that's what we'll say it. No, we'll just call it like that. Yeah. Recreate the wheel. Everybody knows what?
Reinvent the wheel. Reinvent. Reinvent the wheel. That's it. I was like, sounds so right. I was gonna go with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But we, so, so we just. Pulled on all, all these folks that have this experience. And slowly started to build the plan. And then we started, I realized like, okay, we need to start just talking to people about this.
So we started hosting information sessions at bars or churches and faith communities. We started going out to different nonprofits every month. So we formed a community advisory board that had lived experience in the community. That went to a different nonprofit [00:19:00] every month and told the story to that community.
So we've got the paying customers, we're going to these bars and churches and talking to them. Then we've got the nonprofit community. And so then we said we need to start living our mission out. Like we need to actually see if the community wants to see this happen. Mm-hmm. And we'll support it. So we started popping up in different places.
The pay what you can model. We started at a, a big restaurant in 2016. We did this pay what you can pop-up restaurant for the day for a couple hours. And we had 50 people come. We did it every month after that, that we called it our second Saturday, pay what You can brunch. And the, the last one, about a year and a half later, we had about 450 people coming.
Wow. So we just saw over time that this is. The community does want this. Yeah. They do wanna support this. And also in this time we were meeting with anyone that would meet with us and we weren't asking for much, we were just telling the story. I always say that we were fundraising, not fundraising. Okay.
So to your point of like, how did we actually do it? Do we apply for grants? No. Because in the beginning it's [00:20:00] really hard to get grants if you're a new nonprofit. Mm-hmm. You don't have the data, you don't have the stability even, you don't have really any of the, the, things that, things that makes people believe in you.
And so, so we just told the story and then we had, three years later we had maybe $50,000 in the bank. And the power of friend raising and all those years of just telling the story, when we finally got a location, we called on all of those folks we had met with, we called on all the folks that we had gotten signed up at a, at a information session at a brewery.
All the folks that, you know, the nonprofits, we caught on all those, those people. And we raised. The money over literally overnight, couple months, two months to open up the restaurant in downtown Raleigh. Mm-hmm. So there was a lot of trial and error. There was a lot of, of, of really just bringing the community along with us to make it happen.
Mm-hmm. And that's why I always say this is not a me thing. This is a community, truly a place. The table is Raleigh's Community Cafe. They own it. They care for it. They continue to care for it. The [00:21:00] amount of folks that have been involved to make this happen and get it off the ground and then continue to make it happen, I mean, we still have some of the same volunteers that we're volunteering.
In 2018 that are still volunteering today, once a week. It's beautiful.
Melisa: And I, I do wanna get into the volunteers too, because that is certainly an, a unique aspect of what you do. But first I wanna kind of, paint a picture of the space itself. Yeah. Thank you. So the restaurant looks, like I said, like a, a cute cafe.
There's bright colored murals on the wall, nice tables with silverware and cloth napkins. Mm-hmm. A menu that rivals really any breakfast and lunch spot in downtown Raleigh or any downtown. You're also being served. Mm-hmm. So all the diners are treated like they are, for lack of better word or analogy. A real restaurant.
That's right. That's right. It's a real restaurant setting. And I know that that's something that I take for granted myself. However, for homeless or food insecure people, I feel like that's [00:22:00] probably a big deal because you're, you are creating an atmosphere that is instilling self-esteem and self-worth.
That's right. That's right. So I can imagine that all of this came into play for you. And I, I, I mentioned the cloth, napkins and silverware because it's a, it, it creates a, a, a, a finer dining ex experience, you know?
Maggie Kane: Thank you for touching on that because it's, it's huge. I was just telling someone this story the other day.
There is a, every part of a place the table is intentionally thought out. Yes. I can tell that. By our team. Mm-hmm. Not me, by our team. Mm-hmm. And we have a fantastic team. When we first, I, I told you about the community advisory board that was. Made up of folks with lived experience. It also was made up of folks who worked for nonprofits and worked with people with lived experience.
Mm-hmm. So, so we started this community advisory board in maybe 2015, and we met once a month. We visited nonprofits, but we also talked about what we wanted a place, a table to look like and what we needed it to look like. What needed to be on the [00:23:00] menu, what is it? Paper napkins versus cloth napkins. Is it, what kind of colors do we want on the walls?
Mm-hmm. That make all people feel. Welcome, comfortable that they, that they deserve to be there essentially. And so the Community advisory Board really helped us figure out what that looks like and really helped us nail down what our mission was gonna be. But the cloth napkins, it again, was, came outta the Community Advisory Board of saying how important it's to have a cloth napkin.
And, and the best example I can give you and, and I have seen it play out time and time again over the past almost eight years is one of our first months we had someone come in. It was a family. They were food insecure. And, and the mom picked up, like we handed her a silver roll wear roll mm-hmm.
With the real silverware and then the cloth napkin. And she said, no, no, no, this isn't for me. I, I, I don't need that. I, I, I, I'll just take a paper one. And we said, no, it's for you. She said, she said, no, no, no. Like I didn't pay, like I don't deserve that.
Melisa: Wow. Right.
Maggie Kane: And we said, we said yes. Everyone gets, everyone.
Everyone gets this cloth napkin. And [00:24:00] everyone deserves and everyone deserves that of treatment. Yeah, that's right. And she started crying and she said, I have not had a cloth napkin since I was in my grandma's house 20 years ago.
Melisa: Oh wow.
Maggie Kane: Right. So, so, I mean, we will forever, we will not, it's one of our biggest expenses, like monthly expenses.
Mm-hmm. But we, we won't budge on that because it's important. It's important to use real self aware. It, it makes the whole experience different. And you feel, for lack of a better word, like worthy. Yeah. And, and, and seen like John would've said.
Melisa: Yeah. Yeah. And today's economy has. I am sure increase the number of people you are serving every week.
That's an understatement. The, the rent prices in Raleigh and everywhere. Everywhere. Not just Raleigh, but I, I was paying attention to the, the rent prices recently and just thinking. How are people doing this mean they're not, I mean, even like you, you were, you know, newly graduating college's and I don't, I don't understand how people are affording this.
So nowadays it's [00:25:00] becoming you might can pay for your rent, but you're not gonna eat. Yep. So it's just homeless people. It is truly people that, that are struggling to pay day to day. Yeah. Living Yep. Expenses and just don't know where their next meal's gonna come from.
Maggie Kane: Oh my gosh. It's, it continues to increase every single year.
Mm-hmm. We, this year so we were feeding so families could come in, they don't have to volunteer. They can eat for free with us. But they could have, they could come in last year. They could come in every single day. It doesn't, and bring their kids in and eat a good meal with us. We've had to limit it to once a week.
And that's been hard for us. Yeah. 'cause we want them to be able to come every day. But there's, to be, to be completely frank, like there's so many folks that. Need a place at the table that need food, that need, like you said, need that last meal. Yeah. It's, it's, you know, you gotta keep your lights on, but you still need to feed your kids that one meal.
Yeah.
Melisa: Yeah.
Maggie Kane: That one last meal of the week. Mm-hmm. And so, so families come in and eat with us once a week with their kids and, and get to sit and eat a good meal and, and get to, I mean, we're, [00:26:00] we're lucky that they, they do this with us. But with the, the amount of families, the amount of individuals, it's, it's becoming.
Increasingly impossible for people. And it's really sad. Sad. How many, how many people have
Melisa: you served? Do you guys keep a Yes. Keep track of
Maggie Kane: that. Okay. Oh, yeah. We, well, I'll just say also we see about 10 new people a day. Either volunteering for their meal, paying less, or are part of a family that's coming to eat with us.
About 10 or 15 people a day, new people. But we see anywhere from 150 to 200 a day.
Melisa: Wow. Mm-hmm.
Maggie Kane: Yeah. It's, I didn't
Melisa: think you were gonna say quite that many. Mm-hmm.
Maggie Kane: Yeah. It's, and
Melisa: considering you're only open eight to two at eight to two, yeah. That's a lot of people.
Maggie Kane: It's cramp just, but just like you said, the line doesn't stop.
No, it doesn't. Mm-hmm. It doesn't stop. And we we've had to. Make, over the years we've had to, you know, we went, we had six staff when we opened in 2018. Six paid staff, the rest volunteers. We had a small little cafe, only half the size of a place at the table in that same space. Mm-hmm. But during the pandemic, the person moved out next door.
So we [00:27:00] got to push down the door, push on the, the wall, and build a commercial kitchen, be able to feed more people. Mm-hmm. Be able to have more space for people. But I'll say about that is. You know, it was such a small little cafe, and now with six paid staff, now we have 26. Mm-hmm. Maybe 28, 29. And lots more volunteers.
And it's still just every, every day it's increasingly more people.
Melisa: I do wanna get to the, the pricing Yeah. And how things are run. Sure. And this, this is explained to people as they walk in, like I said. Yeah. But, generally speaking, if a diner cannot pay for their meal mm-hmm. They're asked to volunteer at the restaurant for an hour.
Exactly.
Maggie Kane: Yep.
Melisa: For those who can pay, you're welcome to pay the suggested menu price That's right. Or more or more so that you can help fund future meals. That's right. Do you wanna dive into this? Yeah. A little bit more for us. Definitely. I, I know I had to be explained a couple. I like hearing things a few times, Maggie too, before me too.
Fully understand. [00:28:00]
Maggie Kane: Me too. And I'm a visual learner. Yeah. So I need to like, see it in action. Mm-hmm. Yes. So it is confusing. And that is why we always have a door grader, because we don't want people to walk in and see the menu and see the prices on the menu and think mm-hmm. This I've heard, I thought this was free and now I can't.
Right? Yes. So I can't afford
Melisa: this and walk back out. I can afford this. It's a 15
Maggie Kane: sandwich. Mm-hmm. And it's, and, and so we always have a door greeter no matter what, so that folks feel welcome and feel like they understand when they walk in. Mm-hmm. So, you get a suggested price. So if you were to order a sandwich and a latte we'll give you a suggested price of $17.
You can pay that price. You can pay more and pay it forward for someone else. And that's done through tipping our staff make a living wage so we don't take tips. So you could just tip just like you would at most restaurants, and it will, it will go right back into paying it forward. You can pay less.
So we have a minimum and the minimum is $3 for a full meal of your choice. But we ask you pay the minimum if you're go, if you're going, if you can't pay anything, right? Mm-hmm. Or if you're not gonna volunteer. So you can pay the minimum. And if you [00:29:00] can't pay the minimum. You can pay a penny for one item on the menu.
So there's lots of ways mm-hmm. That we, we try to meet folks where they're at. But unfortunately as we've gotten bigger and it can't be free anymore, right? Mm-hmm. So if you can't pay the minimum, you can't pay the, just a price. You can volunteer with us. So you can come in and volunteer with your, for your meal.
Do you can run food, do dishes, bus tables be the greeter? There's lots of volunteer opportunities. Yes. And you're volunteering alongside staff. You're volunteering alongside. Folks who sign up online to volunteer. All volunteers are given the same spiel. They're given, they're given the option to get a meal if they want one.
Mm-hmm. And so we don't ask questions. And the cool part is, is you don't know, as you alluded to earlier, you don't know who's volunteering for their meal and who signed up to volunteer. I
Melisa: had no clue. Correct. I will tell you that. We were surrounded by volunteers. They're everywhere. Food, food runners.
Yes. There was a guy that was washing windows. There was somebody. Yep. Sweeping the floors. Wiping the tables. There was everywhere, a lady and her daughter that were putting the silverware together, wrapping them in the, in the cloth napkins that we were talking about. [00:30:00] You. We had no idea who the employees were.
Who, who was volunteering. Mm. And also who was volunteering because they wanted to volunteer. That's right. Or volunteering for their meals. No clue. No clue. And I think, I thought that was beautiful.
Maggie Kane: Thanks for saying that. Yeah. And I think, and again, you know, it goes back to our mission of community and good food for all, regardless of means.
We use good food as a tool towards creating community. So whether that's sitting beside another table and potentially starting conversation mm-hmm. Or just being together in a, in the same space, being from different backgrounds but also volunteering together. So being in the dish room, doing dishes, realizing that, hey, you may.
Be experiencing homelessness or living in extreme poverty. And I may not, but we're both from Raleigh. Yeah. Yeah. And we both have more in common than we think. We're neighbors. We're neighbors. Yeah. And so, so I think that, I, I think that food is that tool and volunteering is a piece of that. Yeah. And so we're, we're able to bring people together that way to volunteer alongside each other, to, to get to know one another.
And it, and it is intentional of, of who? You, [00:31:00] you, you do not know who volunteered for their meal and who didn't. Because everyone is offered the same opportunity. And when you, we have a check-in thing. So when you check in, you check, I'm vol, I'm gonna eat first, or I'm gonna volunteer first. Mm-hmm.
Everyone gets the same spiel. Mm-hmm. The same thing. So, and, and I'll tell you too, like our staff are superheroes. They are the heroes. They, they create opportunities for folks every day, like washing windows. Mm-hmm. Like busing tables. It's a lot of volunteers coming through there. Yeah. And they have to create that experience for everyone that walks in the door, no matter what.
Melisa: And it's giving people that are, in for a free meal. Sure, yeah. The, the, the feeling that they have done something that's right. To, to earn it and to be a part of this community and a part of the good that is being put out. Yeah.
Maggie Kane: We always say we're a hand up first handout. Mm-hmm. And we want to be that hand up where people feel a part of it.
I think we. We, this goes back to our mission too, is yes, we're fighting food insecurity and we're feeding a lot of people, but we're really fighting community insecurity. Mm-hmm. And creating a place for people to [00:32:00] belong and feel like they are a part of something that's bigger than themselves. Yeah.
They feel worth it and they feel like they are seen back to what, what John would've said.
Melisa: I do wanna touch on very briefly because I'm running outta time, but I want to touch on how can people get involved? Yeah. I know that I am a mom of teenagers. Yeah. My teenagers like volunteering. Yes. They enjoy it.
Yes. How can we be a part of this?
Maggie Kane: I love that. Yes. We would, multiple things we'd love for your teenager to volunteer. Mm-hmm. We, the age is 15, so mm-hmm. So it's gotta be 15. We, it used to be. No age and we realized that we're a really busy restaurant. Yeah. So we need, we need folks to be able to take care of themselves.
So, age is 15, but it's really a fun place to volunteer. I've worked in, it did seem like fun. It's so fun. Yeah. I've worked in restaurants my whole life and, and it's like restaurants are the best, but this is even better because. No one is yelling at you for dropping a dish or, right. Mm-hmm. Like, it's just a really friendly place to volunteer.
[00:33:00] So we're always looking for volunteers. We're always looking for diners. I think, you know, you alluded to this earlier, but I. Our model, we need paying customers to come and dine with us. It, it's what makes our model, our model. Mm-hmm. But it also helps, our bottom line is when folks come and eat with us, like paying customers come and eat with us.
Yeah. Yeah. So we're always looking for folks to come and eat with us.
Melisa: Bring your friends, bring your family. That's why I'm sure, that's why I was sure to start out this podcast by saying the food was Yes. Legit. Good. I know. And I, I left there and I posted on my Facebook page, oh, thank you. And so this. This is actually really good food.
Thank you. You know, you, you're thinking that you're trying to serve so many people that it's gonna, it's gotta be like, you know Yeah. Just fast, quick, yes. Quality. Yeah. Yeah. But it was actually really good.
Maggie Kane: I know, and I, I think there's a misconception that one, that it's, it's probably like we're that, that misconception and we're serving so many people, it's not that good.
The second is that I've gotten a lot is. Well, I don't wanna take away from people that need it and no you're not. Mm-hmm. You're actually [00:34:00] making the experience and you're actually supporting us in continuing to do this work. So we would love more paying customers coming in. Yeah. You've got, that's
Melisa: got to make it ha it ha That's what makes the model work.
It makes the model work. For example, our, our meal was 60 bucks. Yeah. Roughly. And I said, rounded up to a hundred. Oh, thank you, Melissa. Well, and I'm not, I'm not saying that and you know, pat me on the back anyway, but thank you. But I know that that is, you have to have that to be able to Yeah. Continue your mission.
So it's,
Maggie Kane: it's the way the community
Melisa: takes part. I'm highly encouraging people to go be for the good food. Thank you for the good community, and to continue to put goodness out into our society. I mean. We all need it.
Maggie Kane: We need some good. We need a little goodness. Yes. We need some goodness. No, thank you. And and the other way I'd say too is cater, we have a huge catering program and we would love cater.
I wanna talk about that. Yeah. 'cause
Melisa: you have a food truck now called the traveling table. Yeah. And you have a catering service. I did not know that you had a catering service. So talk to us about that.
Maggie Kane: Fantastic. Yeah, we have a, we have an. Awesome team [00:35:00] that runs that or our whole team does really. It's a, it's a team effort.
But we cater and we'll deliver to you. We were very lucky last year we were starting to think through what other ways can we do outreach? What other ways can we generate revenue? As, as we talked about earlier, the we, the need is increasing. Mm-hmm. And we are seeing a lot more. Paying customers or paying what you can customers.
So we're trying to think through, yes, we can keep encouraging people to come in and eat with us, but what is a way other people can get involved too? And so that's through catering, that's through a food truck. And so yes, all, both of those things will do outreach and into communities that. May not have access to coming to, you know, to coming downtown.
Mm-hmm. Or coming to a place to table. But it also is gonna help our bottom line and help us generate revenue to continue to do this work. So we purchased a food truck, the travel and table, and then a support vehicle to also cater and deliver places. So we're doing corporate catering group catering, and, and we're all across the board and, and happy to really kind of meet people where they're at.
We have all that stuff online for folks to see. We have an awesome [00:36:00] human, Emily, who's running that program. And so again, it just, it just gets our, it gets a place, the table's message out there. Mm-hmm. And like you said, really good food so you can support a place of table and then our mission and get really good food for any sort of lunch or dinner that you may have.
Melisa: When I posted that, I had gone there on, on Facebook, one of my friends. Instantly replied and said, my company just catered them last week. And she said it was so good.
Maggie Kane: Oh, thanks
Melisa: for saying that. So, yeah, I guess the catering is just as good as the cafe itself,
Maggie Kane: and I can, and I can say the food is this good, not because I'm biased, because I don't cook.
So like, like it is, we have a novel team. You were making it, I in there making it. Yeah. We have a phenomenal team mm-hmm. Of people that are all culinary trained. Mm-hmm. And like fricking rock stars. Yeah. And so they make a great, and they're creative and they're, yeah. Yeah, they're just, they're awesome. So they are making it and coming up with new ideas all the time.
And so, it's like, it's easy. It's like you get to support and feel like you're supporting a community. Mm-hmm. And
Melisa: [00:37:00] the food is good. So like that's a win-win. It is a win-win. Can you tell everybody where, what your website is? Sure.
Maggie Kane: Yeah.
Melisa: Because on your website this is information about the food truck and catering.
It's information about how to volunteer, yeah. How to be involved. Everything all in one place. That's right.
Maggie Kane: Yep. Table raleigh.org. You can just type in a place at the table, Raleigh, in Google, it'll come up. Mm-hmm. But table rally.org and all that's there. We have events calendar, we've got catering, we've got food, truck stuff volunteering.
And then we're the, we're. The most active on Instagram at table, at table Raleigh, on Instagram. So you can see what we're doing, see what's coming up. So yeah, we have, it's, we'd love to see you. And we're at 300 West Har Street in downtown Raleigh.
Melisa: Perfect. Well, on behalf of everybody, thank you for all that you have done.
Maggie Kane: Oh, it's a joy. Thank you for
Melisa: being a model of goodness in Raleigh. We need more Maggie Kane's.
Maggie Kane: No, we need more of all of us. Yes. It takes a whole community. Yes, as I'm wearing the shirt. Yes. Listen, do good, be kind. Change the [00:38:00] world from activate. Good. So you are doing that. You're doing just that. Oh, well thank you.
We all are. And thank you for having me. It's such a joy to be with y'all. And thank you. Thanks for coming to the cafe too, I think. Yeah. And coming back. I can't wait.
Melisa: I've gotta have that sandwich again.
Maggie Kane: I, I, yes. You. I should have brought you one. Oh, hey. Yeah. Maybe next time. Next time, next time. Thank you.
You Maggie. Alright, thank you
Melisa: Melissa.
[00:39:00]