Stone Soup Café, Mandala Café, Inc. and Unity Tables, Inc.

Grant Amount

$17,500

Description of Organization

This Collaboration Grant among Stone Soup Cafe, Mandala Cafe, Inc. and Unity Tables supported the “Unity Tables Community Café Incubator,” mobilizing Buddhist groups to help reduce hunger and poverty in the United States by providing an alternative model to the soup kitchen, which features overcoming social segregation and building community bonds across boundaries.
Our goals:

• Mobilize Buddhist groups to help reduce hunger and poverty in the United States by providing an alternative model to the soup kitchen, which features overcoming social segregation and building community bonds across boundaries.
• Launch a Unity Tables Incubator that will provide training, mentorship and peer support to aid leaders to create cafés that
  • build community including socioeconomic and ethnic diversity
  • reduce hunger
• Make possible the participation of the Buddhist-led Mandala Café as one of the six Year 1 Unity Tables Community Café Incubator cohort members.
• Draw on Buddhist inspiration to help people see each other in a way that facilitates mutual respect and allows for the possibility of genuine human connection, ongoing relationships and support