Wytheville, VA – The Open Door Café, an award winning, nonprofit community café serving chef-prepared lunches 5 days a week regardless of guests’ ability to pay, has announced a strategic relaunch, re-alignment, and grand re-opening initiative. During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, the café suspended volunteer and donation expectations. To best serve the community, meals were distributed in a manner more typical of a soup kitchen. After relaunching in July 2023, the café’s pricing and operations will be realigned to its original vision. Since opening in November 2018, the café has served over 100,000 meals. As the café deepens its impact and reaches toward 200,000 meals served, the redesigned café experience will offer guests more value, featuring: - More food menu choices.
- More side and beverage options.
- More ways to give.
- More guest volunteer opportunities in exchange for a meal.
- A streamlined guest ordering and checkout experience.
When visiting for lunch, café guests may give in the following ways: - Give at full menu value
- Give ½ hour of volunteer time
- Give $3
Key Dates and Relaunch Schedule: - June 30, 2023 – Last day of normal operations before relaunch
- July 2 – 14, 2023 – Café closed for remodeling
- July 17, 2023 – Café resumes normal operating scheduled (projected)
- TBA – Grand Re-opening
Mike Pugh, Food Operations Lead and founding management team member said, “We are excited to again provide meal choices to our guests. Providing a selection encourages all to revisit Open Door Café as a first choice lunch venue. We are equally excited to work with guests that choose to volunteer their time to join our community café experience. Returning to the café’s original vision, a place where all can gather as a community and nourish not only their appetite but their souls as well, is exciting and rewarding. We are happy that these necessary changes do exactly that for our entire community, building a future of partnership, purpose, dignity, and choice.” # # # Based in Wytheville, Virginia, the Open Door Cafe is wholly owned subsidiary of Open Door Community, formerly HOPE, Inc., a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Open Door Cafe is a gift-based community cafe, serving locally sourced, healthy food to anyone regardless of means. Everyone gives Wythe us so that everyone eats Wythe us. # # # Open Door Community, formerly HOPE, Inc., is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization breaking generational poverty through enhanced food access and housing stability. It serves a five-county area of Bland, Carroll, Grayson, Smyth, and Wythe, as well as the city of Galax. Helping Overcome Poverty’s Existence, Inc. (HOPE) was established 30 years ago to fulfill the challenge of its name - to reduce the conditions contributing to poverty in Southwest Virginia. |
