SCCC is developing an innovative, exciting 21st century pay-as-you-can restaurant concept in downtown Fort Dodge. The idea is simple: provide a healthy meal made from local ingredients to the Fort Dodge community. Some people will pay more,
some people will pay less, but everyone gets a meal.
The following goals guide our efforts:
*** Provide a welcoming environment that serves as a gathering place for all members of the community, regardless of ability to pay;
*** Help eliminate local hunger and food insecurity;
*** Trust our customers to be honest and fair in their exchange of money and/or volunteer work for their meals using the option of self-pricing, suggested pricing;
*** Employ a base staff and pay them a living wage;
*** Lessen neighborhood and community tensions, and working to eliminate prejudice and discrimination against the economically and socially marginalized population by creating a space where individuals from all socio-economic backgrounds may gather around
the concept of a shared meal.
*** Combat community deterioration by providing dignified employment, volunteer opportunities and referrals to individuals in distressed, economic crisis and//or homelessness and substance abuse;
*** Combat community by stimulating the local economy, by sourcing food, and other café inputs from local farmers/producers, by growing produce in an urban setting, by creating jobs, and paying a living wage.
*** Provide employment training and job retooling services, teaching unemployed, under employed and homeless individuals skills to seek gainful and dignified jobs and sustainable income with the culinary arts and restaurants.
*** Provide a safe place for local artists to display and consign their art.
The Community Need
According to recent studies the average household income in 2013 in Fort Dodge was $37,247 compared to the state average of $52,229. With a population of 24,639, an estimate 14.3% of households were food insecure at least sometime in 2013, meaning they
lacked access to enough food for an active healthy life for all household members. Of that percentage 9% were children, and 5% adults. 6279 individuals/households received assistance through the SNAP program.
Southwest Circle Community Café
Southwest Community Café will be a non-profit, donation based restaurant addressing local food insecurity, hunger, and the “real” food deficit. People from a broad cross section of the community will enjoy innovative, healthy, locally sourced meals, regardless
of their ability to pay.
Under the proven pay-as-you-can model, economically challenged patrons will have the opportunity to volunteer in exchange for a meal; the more fortunate members of the Fort Dodge community will have the opportunity to “pay it forward” when they choose their
price, supporting volunteer diners and fully complementary meals. No one will be turned away.
Paying customers customize their meal, choosing their portion size, and they pay what they believe is fair. Access to right-sized portions and fresh, healthy food can have a significant impact on obesity. In 2008, medical costs associated with obesity in
the United States were estimated at $147 billion. Choosing portions also reduces the scandalous quantity of both fresh and prepared food wasted in the United States (70 billion tons of food are annually are squandered while 50 million people go hungry).
SCCC brings together individuals whose paths might not routinely cross, thus building a reciprocal ethic of compassion, tolerance and concern for the community, around the common bond of a shared meal. Patrons begin to see food as more than a mere consumable,
but rather as the centerpiece for creating healthy relationships and a strong community. This model has proven effective throughout the United States: Research published in the Journal of Marketing outlined the positive influence participative pricing has
on consumers’ intent to purchase, and cross-sector probes have revealed that revenues in the pay as you can, or pay as you value models are higher than revenues using posted prices. (Journal of Marketing vol. 73 (January 2009), Ju Young Kim, Martin Natter
& Martin Spann http://www.ecm.bwl.unimuenchen.de/publikatinen/pdf/pwyw_jm.pdf
Follow us on Facebook! - https://www.facebook.com/SouthwestCircleCafe
