Food and the New Money

mtwadmin - Fri, January 14, 2011

I was turned on to this article by Slow Money.

The article’s main focus is Mission Pie, a for-profit bakery in the Mission district in San Francisco.  In addition to selling tasty pie and making money, its goals also include sustainability (big deal, right?  even McDonald’s is getting on that bandwagon now) and youth advocacy (okay, that’s pretty cool).

From their website: 

“By providing a positive, encouraging and empowering employment experience, Mission Pie hopes to enhance the lives of at-risk San Francisco youth and cultivate in them not only some practical know-how and experience, but some perspective, as well. The edifying experience is intended for our student/interns as well as our customers, as we hope to create an awareness of what the life of a small, independent, community-minded business is like; particularly a food business, and how it relates to the city, the environment, the local economy, and public health and nutrition. We hope that through involvement with Mission Pie’s spirit of community, productivity and optimism, our young workers come away with healthy attitudes and ideas that motivate them well into the future, and which they might also share with their peers, their families, and any other communities they pass through.”

The article also mentions this Salt Lake City not-for-profit restaurant, One World Everybody Eats.  Try to get past the visually affronting website (so much Papyrus font… no!) to the heart of the restaurant’s mission.

From the (unfortunately rendered) website:

“One World Everybody Eats asks guests to pay what they feel the meal warranted based on suggested a la cart prices. You are asked to choose your own portions so as not to waste food or over eat.  Although the kitchen is a non-profit establishment, it still must meet regular business expenses. No one in the community is turned away for inability to pay.  There are additional ways to earn a meal.  Any extra you may want to donate above the suggested price of your meal goes to support meals for members of our community that may be food insecure right now.”

Their vision statement also includes this bold statement: “We believe that we can trust our customers to be inspired, honest and fair in their exchange of money and/or time for the fresh, local, organic food we prepare both mindfully and in a heartfelt way each day.”

That’s interesting.  Money and/or time.  The idea of time as a currency is so common in the United States it’s almost hidden.  It’s even worked its way into our language.  We spend time, waste time, save time.  We are constantly directly exchanging time for money in the workplace, which we then go on to spend on things like clothes, housing, entertainment, and food.  Why not spend your time directly earning what you need.  In other words, cut out the middle man?  Barter, baby.  It’s the wave of the future.

Another interesting word in the vision statement sentence is “trust.”  Of course, this type of “honor system” pricing does involve a fair amount of trust.  If half your customers come in and take free food, you’re not going to meet basic business expenses.  However, this brings us to another form of currency.  Community.  If you create a space that people believe in, that they feel a part of and want to sustain and support, then you’ll be more likely to sustain a “pay what you can,” model. 

It looks like owner Denise Cerreta’s business model has been successful enough to inspire spin-offs in other states and Canada.  While I don’t envision five-star restaurants or mall food courts to follow suit any time soon, it is inspiring to see so many of these “Everybody Eats” establishments popping up—one is even owned by Panera Bread! 

What do you think?  Are these businesses pie-in-the-sky (pun totally intended) idealistic, or real harbingers of where our economy is taking us?