I’m looking out from my kitchen table at ice covered trees today. I’m home because of the weather, but usually I’d be working at another table in a windowless office at the back of a building on Barton Street in the east end of Hamilton, Ontario.
I work at a not-for-profit café called 541 Eatery and Exchange, where our mission is to welcome everyone to the table. That’s a bold statement! For the past four years we’ve opened our doors 6 days a week for 12 hours. The ‘we’ is about 15 staff, mostly part time, and 200 volunteers. The volunteers help do everything – cook, clean, do the dishes, serve our customers, and work alongside our youth outreach worker. Because of them we’re able to keep our payroll costs low, and that translates into really low prices. In case they aren’t low enough, we have a pay it forward system that uses buttons as café currency. No, you don’t have to bring in buttons with you! We have a jar full of buttons that ‘cost’ a dollar each. A customer can buy as many as they like, and transfer them over to another jar. Those buttons are then available to anyone without money that day, to put towards anything on the menu. You can use 5 buttons every day, so long as another customer pays for them in advance.
This simple system means that our customers are a mixed crew. It’s not unusual for business people needing a quick lunch to be lining up with one of our community who sleeps rough in the local park. It seems to us to be a sign of God’s kingdom. It isn’t always heavenly – sometimes people are having a difficult day, sometimes customers don’t get along (that’s true for everyone, no matter how they pay for their order). But in general we’ve made deep friendships with people we otherwise would never have met, and have come to love people who get overlooked.
In a couple of days I’ll lead the funeral service for one of our regulars. Most of our staff will be there, along with many customers. Margaret was a character. Forthright, a wearer of extraordinary hats, she was completely dedicated to dressing up for Halloween or Christmas or Easter. She tended to talk during worship on Sunday afternoons at The Meeting Place, the congregation I pastor that meets in the café. She sat at the same table every morning, where she played the board game Trouble with a decided competitive spirit. Margaret found a welcome at 541. She had a place at the table, and we will miss her.
Rev. Sue Carr
Executive Director
541 Eatery and Exchange