Our Mission
A Place at the Table provides community and good food for all regardless of means.
What does this mean if you want to eat here?
Customers have multiple options to pay:
- Pay the suggested price
- Pay at least $3 for your meal
- Pay using a PLACE Card
- Pay by volunteering at least an hour
Pay it Forward
- Tip to fulfill our mission
- Buy a $10 PLACE Card to hand out in the community
Our Story
A Place at the Table was started in 2015 with a mission to provide community and good food to all, regardless of means.
Maggie Kane, founder and executive director, grew up volunteering at soup kitchens. She went because her mother wanted her to know what it’s like to serve others. After 20+ years of volunteering, Maggie found that soup kitchens are so different from her own life experience. She wondered why she gets to eat what she wants, with who she wants to and for how long she wants to while those experiencing homelessness do not.
Maggie realized that she needed to do something about this problem, we needed to soup kitchen 2.0 our town.
In 2018, our flagship cafe opened in downtown Raleigh. A Place at the Table is Raleigh’s first pay-what-you-can cafe! The best part is that when you walk in, it looks like a regular restaurant, you wouldn’t know we are a nonprofit. And it’s working!
Pay-what-you-can is working!
SINCE MARCH 2020
35,238
MEALS SERVED
$62,000
VALUE OF MEALS
DONATED
4,681
PAY IT FORWARDS
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Eat
Dine at the cafe, pay the suggested price to help cover our operating costs or pay it forward.
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Partner Organizations
Commnity partners help promote our mission. We could not exist without their support.
Our Story and Operating Model
It’s time to soup kitchen 2.0 this community. Watch a TEDx talk where founder and executive director Maggie Kane outlines the need, vision, and operating model of A Place at the Table.