In March of 2012, some folks at Bozeman’s Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) cooked up a plan. They saw a missing link in Bozeman’s increasingly prosperous community. For such a thriving place, why didn’t we have more flexible dining options? There’s a lot of ground to cover between fine dining and the local chain. They saw a need and filled that gap.
Enter Fork and Spoon, Montana’s first pay-what-you-can restaurant. Serving homegrown, scratch cooking at prices that the customer chooses, this restaurant provides everyone with delicious, healthy meals whether they can pay or not. Fork and Spoon is located on North 7th Avenue and open for dinner Sunday-Thursday, 5-7 p.m. Employees and volunteers use local foods and ingredients wherever possible, which influences the menu’s weekly updates.
The concept behind Fork and Spoon, formerly known as the Community Café, is to make food as a whole more accessible to everyone. One in 7 people in the valley is experiencing food insecurity, and several HRDC programs work to help combat hunger. “After the recession, food was flying off our shelves at the Food Bank,” said Jill Holder, HRDC’s Food and Nutrition Director. “We decided to do meals instead of a box of food; it seemed more practical.”
By partnering with many local organizations, accumulating volunteers, and securing the old Frontier Pies restaurant building, HRDC has given our community a restaurant that anyone can patronize. “Bozeman is expensive,” said Andy Galloway, Fork and Spoon’s program manager. “And food is a right to everyone. I like the way we treat people here not like they’re getting a handout, but like they’re coming into a restaurant.”
In addition to offering catering, rental space, Friday sack lunches, and take-and-bake dinners like lasagna, soups, and quiches, Fork and Spoon is also proud to offer The Mighty Spork Food truck (exact same concept: pay what you can, only at a mobile space). The Spork offers tasty meals like flatbread wraps and grain bowls, and can be found for lunch at such places as River Rock Pond, and for dinner at the Bozeman, Big Sky, and Belgrade Farmer’s Markets.
Penny Johnson, HRDC’s communications manager, emphasizes the social enterprise piece of Fork and Spoon, as well as the Spork. “By renting out our kitchen space, and taking the Spork to events, we’re able to generate dollars for what we need,” she said. Added Holder, “This model brings in about $2 per meal, and it obviously costs more than that to create one meal.”
Furthermore, according to Holder, Fork and Spoon is “the ultimate expression that we are a community that cares…the volunteers that show up every evening to serve, and the nutritious food, are symbolic: ‘you mean something.’”
Paying it forward is another one of the most appealing things about Fork and Spoon. Need some good karma? Feel free to pick up someone else’s tab, make a donation through the Fork and Spoon website, and/or overtip. Consider helping in some way with this year’s Thanksgiving Dinner hosted there, or volunteering even once or twice. For those fortunate enough to afford it, these are some excellent ways to give back.
