Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennie Knowlton.
Hi Jennie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Jennie Knowlton grew up knowing what food insecurity felt like, the quiet pride that makes a family turn away from help they desperately need. During a family vacation, Jennie, David, and their daughter, Elizabeth, visited their first Pay-What-You-Can café in Red Bank, NJ, and absolutely loved the concept. Not long after, Elizabeth went to college at Appalachian State and they happened upon F.A.R.M. Cafe in Boone, NC, which is just as amazing, yet run in a completely different way. Years later, those memories became the seed of something extraordinary. Food, community, and trust.
When Covid hit in March 2020, and the three of them felt sidelined watching so many others lose their jobs and experience severe health issues, they felt that it was time for them to make a drastic turn in their collective lives’ path. When Elizabeth came up with the idea to start a PWYC, it literally felt like time had stopped, and their true family calling had been realized! When it came to choosing a name, “The Quiltmaker Café”, was immediately agreed upon, Drawing inspiration from a children’s book Elizabeth had brought home from kindergarten, The Quiltmaker’s Gift, a story about a quiltmaker who gives freely to those in need, and a king who learns that generosity is the greatest wealth of all. Jennie started researching and reaching out to others about nonprofits and restaurants, and it has just kept rolling since then!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
For a food service business in Chatham County, finding the right physical location is not simply a matter of negotiating a lease and signing on the dotted line. It is a years long challenge rooted in a county wide infrastructure problem that has constrained commercial development for decades. The limitations imposed by inadequate sewer access have substantial implications for future development in Chatham County, and without a coherent plan for expanding sewer services, growth has been stunted. The result for Jennie was a commercial landscape with very few suitable, move in ready foodservice spaces, high demand for those that do exist, and rising costs that made the equation even harder for a nonprofit with a donation-based revenue model.
For years, Jennie searched for a space that could serve as a permanent home for The Quiltmaker Café. By leaning in to her deep pool of community partners, the breakthrough finally came when Postal Fish Company announced it was closing its doors. The owner; a founding board member of The Quilt Maker Café, in the spirit of community and shared vision arranged for The Quiltmaker Café to take over the space. It was a remarkable act of generosity from one community institution to another, and it gave Jennie exactly what she had been looking for: a downtown location where people could walk in, a full kitchen already in place, and a community already primed to welcome something new.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about The Quiltmaker Cafe?
The Quiltmaker Café features a restaurant-style experience, complete with a curated menu and choices, all designed to emphasize human dignity, offering no pricing to guests. Our mission is to provide community & healthy meals to all people, regardless of ability to donate, by utilizing seven main elements: social enterprise, donations only, guests choose portions, everyone is welcome, space for community, opportunity to volunteer & excellent food. The Quiltmaker Cafe will be a place that is seamlessly inclusive, such that all are welcome regardless of ability to donate, and where those who cannot donate are not distinguished from other guests. A top priority of the cafe is to stress the importance of inclusion and participation of our larger community.
To accomplish these objectives, key activities include the following:
-establishing a cafe-style restaurant that offers give-what-you can pricing options and a variety of choices for how each guest can participate in the “community “of the cafe;
-offering the option of volunteering in exchange for a meal as a dignified equalizer between donating and non-donating guests;
-allowing guests to choose their portion sizes as a means of emphasizing the dignity that comes with choice and also to cut down on food waste;
-running the cafe primarily through the use of volunteers as a way of inviting all to participate in the community aspect of the cafe;
-serving locally sourced, healthy, seasonal food to the greatest extent possible, thereby allowing local producers to participate in the cafe community, and
-offering a community table along with smaller, individual tables to provide an opportunity for conversation, common understandings and a sense of “we’re all in this together”.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I struggled with food insecurity at many different points in my young life. I knows what it means to have an empty pantry and to have my family anxiously waiting for the next payday. One of the best jobs as a young adult was working in a restaurant, because a meal would be included with every shift. After meeting my husband and starting a family, food insecurity seemed to be a thing of the past, but looking back, I’ve realized that it would have only taken a small tilt of the scales to change all of that.
Pricing:
- There is no pricing on any items at The Quiltmaker Cafe
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thequiltmakercafe.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quiltmakercafe/
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/Quiltmaker-Cafe-102375978868214
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennie-knowlton-551730223
- Other: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/donate-to-make-a-difference-2500
