History of the SAME Café Model
Pictured: The original SAME Denver located on Colfax
It was a crisp, sunny Friday on October 20, 2006, when Brad finished writing the menu on a chalkboard and Libby unlocked the front door of SAME Café for the first time. After innumerable hours volunteering with soup kitchens and food pantries, Brad & Libby Birky brainstormed the idea for SAME Café on a cocktail napkin and magazine page on a flight home from visiting family. They had been working hard for months to turn the tiny storefront into a workable café. They had no idea if anyone would show up, but they had decided that if just one person who needed food came in and got a warm meal, then all of the work would be worth it.
Libby had taken a sick day from her teaching job for opening day; Brad would go to work at his IT job later that night. They had sunk their entire savings into their dream of a place where people from every background could eat a healthy meal, served with dignity, and be treated with equality. Sure, the floor drain wasn’t quite up to par yet and there were other issues, but the Café was welcoming and the food was healthy and delicious.
The first person who walked through the doors that day at 11:06am—six minutes after they turned the sign to say “open”—was a person the Birkys had never met and they were ecstatic! In all, they served 9 people they had never met—guests who were in need of a warm meal and a person to talk to—and when they turned the sign to say “closed” later that day, they knew it was all worth it!
Who could have imagined—least of all the people who thought Brad and Libby were optimistically naive—that many years later, SAME Café would be thriving and serving more meals than ever and replicating the mission in new communities around the country.
Pictured: Brad and Libby Birky
SAME is based on an innovative participation-based model providing everyone access to healthy food in a community setting. At SAME, people can be nourished with dignity while contributing what they can—time, money, or produce—to the operation of the Café. This unique approach to food justice inspired partnerships with community organizations and agencies, as well as, positioned SAME as a national model for solutions to food insecurity.
In 2012, SAME Café was selected to receive the RFMA Gives Award (Restaurant Facility Management Association) to fund a kitchen makeover that upgraded and expanded the original kitchen and doubled the dining space. The change in SAME leadership in 2017 energized SAME for growth. The development of the SAME Outreach Program, including the SAME Café Food Truck, and Cook to Work, a job training program, led to more community partnerships and outreach to more neighborhoods beyond the SAME Café East Colfax location.
In 2019, the SAME Board approved plans to replicate the SAME Café model at the Toledo Lucas County Public Library. On November 4th, 2022, SAME Toledo opened for the first time in the Main Library of Toledo, OH and is already serving more meals than our original location. This second SAME Café site is the beginning of a successful, replicable model in communities throughout the country, especially in host sites like downtown libraries. This course is the continuation of that dream!
