YORK, Pa. – Unable to close a gap in operating expenses, the Healthy World Cafe, a non-profit community restaurant, has gone out of business. The closure was announced in an email sent by the cafe’s board of directors to supporters and friends:
“It is with heavy hearts that we share the news with you that Healthy World Café will close at 24 South George Street, effective today.
Due to unexpected staff changes and an ongoing operational deficit, the board felt we could not continue on as a full-time operation. We are carefully considering our options moving forward.
Many of you were with us as we began in 2011, popping up at community events with this new idea of a “pay how you can” café. In the past five years, we’ve lived our mission in all that we do: To build a sustainable community by providing nourishing food for all.
In our time at 24 South George Street, and even prior at First Moravian Church, we have served several hundred individuals who volunteered in exchange for a healthy meal they may have not otherwise been able to afford. We also saw many community supporters embrace our pay-how-you-can model and pay it forward for others.
We are indebted to our partners and supporters, and are very grateful for the opportunities we found in furthering our collaborative partnerships with organizations such as the York County Food Alliance, Horn Farm Center for Agricultural Education, WellSpan, York County School of Technology and HACC York.
We’re proud of the impact we’ve had on downtown York and the ways in which we were able to achieve our mission. We truly feel we’ve made a difference in educating individuals about locally sourced, healthy foods, as well as provided a great resource for skills training for many of our volunteers. We are grateful to our volunteers, our farmers, our donors and all who have supported the café.
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to create a sustainable operation and make the numbers work to be open full time.
We thank you for your time, your patronage, your support and your enthusiasm for the cafe in its many renditions. We hope you enjoyed your experiences in the cafe “Where Friends Meet and Everybody Eats.”
The board let go the cafe’s manager, its only full time employee, in early February. There was a part-time assistant manger and numerous volunteers.
