When our bread baking days were through, we donated lots of our bakery equipment, thanks to your generous support, to Denver’s first nonprofit restaurant called SAME Cafe. I’m pictured here with Letisha Steele, Operations Officer and Chef from SAME Cafe.
SAME is an acronym for, “So All May Eat,” but it is also at the core of their mission to treat all people, regardless of economic situation, the SAME. They make it their business to love everyone.
Normally, SAME Cafe serves a healthy lunch to anyone who is hungry regardless of their ability to pay. They accept donations from people with the means, and encourage others to contribute time or produce in exchange for their meals. That’s what they normally do. But these are not normal times.
Since the start of social distancing and stay home orders, SAME Cafe has been forced to pivot in order to continue to support our neighbors suffering from poverty and homelessness. These abnormal days, they serve meals from their patio, and ask only that the recipients be good to themselves and others, and stay apart so we can all stay healthy. With skyrocketing unemployment, SAME Cafe’s work has become infinitely more important.
Since the start of the shutdown in March, SAME Cafe has served over 7,100 meals.
During the pandemic, they have already served nearly four times as many meals as they served all last year. This is an operation on overdrive, and we are proud to share Denver’s nonprofit space with them.
At Stigma, we have been calling on you, our supporters and volunteers, to help us get out into the community and make a difference. We helped We Don’t Waste distribute meat and produce in one of Denver’s food deserts, and we made and served PB&J sandwiches to our homeless neighbors in Civic Center Park. The stay at home order has our in-person community outreach on hold for the moment, but that doesn’t mean we can’t keep working together to end the stigma associated with poverty, homelessness and addiction.
Let’s raise some money for SAME Cafe so they can continue to go above and beyond to feed our neighbors in need during COVID-19.
Please donate to Stigma today! We will use 100% of your fully tax deductible donations to help SAME Cafe keep their mission thriving in the face of unprecedented demand. A donation to Stigma this week will help hungry people in Denver eat free meals from SAME Cafe.
We all feel so helpless as we do the only thing we can to prevent the spread of the disease and hunker down at home. If you feel like we do, and want to make a direct, local impact, please consider a donation to Stigma today.