As Philadelphia’s first pay as you can restaurant, the EAT Café helps with the concept of fighting hunger. EAT Café is short for “Everyone at the Table. The receipt slip reads: “The total above is only a suggested price. Please write here the amount you wish to pay.” At the EAT Café some people may over pay, while others may underpay or not pay at all for the same meal. It is a place where the communities can come together. People who do have the money to pay help support this because some can pay more so that way the people who cant pay as much can still get food.

A professor of public health at Drexel University is the founder of the EAT Café. It is the first nonprofit “community cafe,”  with support from Vetri Community Partnership, Giant Food Stores, and others. Mariana Chilton, who heads Drexel’s Center for Hunger-Free Communities first encountered this concept in Brazil. She didn’t want the café to be located in a basement of a church nor cafeteria style. She wanted to create it like a normal full service restaurant, a place where people can meet all different types of people and intermingle.

I think pay as you can restaurants are a good idea. It is a place where people with resources can participate in a meaningful social experience by giving back to their community through good food. This is a way to help feed the homeless and help families who are struggling to put food on their plates. The EAT Café provides high quality food.

Another reason why pay as you can restaurants are a good idea is that it brings people from different classes together and shows them even though one may be struggling more than the other they can still eat the same food. I believe more people should be encouraged in participating and helping their communities. As in result  of that, they might be saving some ones life. People may not understand why this is so important because they can go home and eat all they want. There are a lot of people out there who are really struggling and do not have something to eat. Think of the parents who cannot feed their kids, the college student who barely has enough to eat, or an older person on a fixed income.

This is just one step closer to fighting hunger in the US. Therefore, I encourage you to visit a pay as you can restaurant as you can be changing someone’s life.