All Are welcome Regardless of means
Simple Flavors
Quality Ingredients
a pay-what-you-can Café
Coming soon to Durham, North Carolina
Heart Beats Community Café is a Pay-What-You-Can Cafe that will be located in the Lakewood area of Durham, NC. We seek to provide a space all have access to nourishing food and individuals can eat it in a welcoming, clean, environment, where they will be served with dignity and are part of the community.
There is Dignity
and Power in Choice
We will accomplish our mission in two ways:
1.
We eat together.
Patrons from all walks of life come together to share a meal at our table.
2.
We volunteer together.
People can volunteer for their meal every day and gain skills and connection with each shift.
The best part is you wouldn’t even know we are a nonprofit. To the average consumer, we will operate as one of the millions of cafes you eat at every day…until a volunteer behind the counter asks, “would you like to pay the suggested price, pay less or volunteer for your meal?”
Our Story
Heart Beats Community Café (HBCC) was founded in 2024 with a simple mission: to provide good food and meaningful community to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay.
For many people, food is about much more than nourishment. It can be love, connection, celebration, comfort, culture, and belonging. But that relationship is not the same for everyone. For some, food has also been shaped by hunger, scarcity, uncertainty, or the need to simply get through the day.
The idea for HBCC grew from witnessing those very different experiences with food. There are people eating from dumpsters, kitchen staff saving food from customers’ unfinished plates, and people choosing less nutritious options because healthier food cost more. There are children experiencing food insecurity who grow up with unhealthy connections to food: kids eating sticks of butter or ChapStick, hoarding, hiding or stealing food. Some quietly take what they can find—including a 6 year old girl who was suspended from school for taking chips.
These experiences reveal that food insecurity is about more than having enough calories. It can affect how people experience safety, dignity, relationships, and their sense of belonging.
HBCC was created around a different idea: that everyone deserves access to a good meal in a welcoming place, without judgment or stigma. A place where food can once again be about nourishment and connection—and where everyone has a seat at the table, regardless of what they can afford.
In 2022, she volunteered at A Place at the Table, Raleigh’s first pay-what-you-can café, and saw the model in action. She witnessed how food could become a bridge to connection, creating a welcoming space where people from different circumstances could sit at the same table and be treated with dignity.
Inspired by the impact of A Place at the Table and the possibilities of the model, Heart Beats Community Café was established in 2024 to bring that same spirit of connection through food to Durham, NC.
Why Durham?
Durham is a natural home for a pay-what-you-can café.
Durham has a strong culture of food, community, entrepreneurship, and connection. It is also a diverse city where neighbors experience food and financial security in very different ways.
HBCC can bring those communities together around the same table—offering everyone the same quality food, welcoming restaurant experience, and opportunity to contribute according to their means.
With a vibrant local food community, farmers and food producers, nonprofits, and residents who value connection and collaboration, Durham has the ingredients to make this model work.
HBCC is creating a place where food becomes common ground—and everyone belongs.
Mission Statement
Provide healthy food and community for all regardless of means
Core Values
Dignity
Meet people where they are, listen without judgement, communicate with kindness and empower each to make their own choices
Respect
Recognize each others worth, value and humanity. Appreciate unique qualities and perspectives of others, regardless of differences, and treat them with courtesy
Community
Diverse group of voices, perspectives, and cultures, coming together for a common purpose. A place to belong, find purpose, celebrate triumphs and navigate challenges.
Excellence
A hunger for continual improvement along a journey of continuous growth and discovery
Humility
Modest and courteous attitude towards oneself and others
