Nonprofit Restaurant Holds First Pop-Up Lunch

Grace Café, a "pay-what-you-can" community restaurant in Danville, has held its first "pop-up" lunch at New Hope Food Pantry.

Rochelle Bayless, executive director for the café, said the Monday event was the first of many pop-up lunches that will happen before the café can find its permanent home sometime in the future.

"This is about us getting out into the community and doing our thing," said Bayless. "We wanted to put together a simple menu, feed people through the ‘pay-what-you-can’ system."

The mission of the café is to end hunger in Boyle County by welcoming and serving patrons in a respectful and dignified manner, regardless of their ability to pay.

As will be the case once the permanent café opens its doors, a donation system was set up for patrons to pay what they felt their meal is worth. In the future, if a guest is unable to pay for their meal, an hour of volunteer time may be exchanged for a meal.

As for Monday’s lunch, which was prepared by Chef Shannon Collins who currently serves as day chef at Azur in Lexington and has a passion for the farm-to-table movement, a creamy chicken enchilada was served with a corn and black bean salsa, and sweet tea. Those who could not pay were simply asked to sign up for the organization’s newsletter in return for their meal.

Collins said ingredients used for Monday’s lunch and for any future meals are sourced by local farmers to ensure the healthiest options are made available to their patrons.

Bayless said the New Hope Food Pantry on Hustonville Road in Danville was the perfect location to hold its first-ever "pop-up" lunch on Monday.

"This is just the perfect location for us to start so we can really try to get into the communities of need," said Bayless. "And to also support the New Hope Food Pantry, which really meets a need in the community. We’re all working together to end hunger."

Bayless said they have a prospective location for the permanent café in mind, but prefers to wait for an announcement until all of the details can be finalized.

"We believe we have a location," said Bayless. "We haven’t signed the lease yet. We’re still working out the feasibility of its ventilation systems and that kind of things. We’re working on it once we’re sure we can get a ventilation system in there."

The premise for the café is based on the restaurant model developed by the One World Everybody Eats Foundation. Grace Café is touted as the first of its kind in Kentucky and offers "delicious, fresh, locally-sourced, organic-when-possible, highly-nutritious food" to all who walk through the door.

Bayless said in September she envisions a real community-based establishment for Danville where everyone can "break bread together," creating a more vibrant, healthy and economically strong community.

Future pop-up lunches will be coming, promises Bayless, although they will not be announced ahead of time.

"That’s the point of a ‘pop-up’ lunch," she said. "We have lots of plans for doing stuff, but folks will just have to check out Facebook on the morning of the ‘pop-up’ to learn the locations of the event."