One World Spokane — the city’s first nonprofit organic community kitchen, began with Janice Raschko’s vision of opening a teahouse in Spokane’s international district.

“I wanted to do some kind of community space,” says Raschko, who is president of One World Spokane, located at 1804 E Sprague Ave.

Her vision soon expanded, when Raschko met Denise Cerreta, a community kitchen advocate from Salt Lake City, and founder of One World Café. Inspired by Cerreta’s experience in opening Salt Lake City’s first community kitchen, Raschko’s plans for a teahouse began to take on a different shape.

Both women adopted a similar business model based on a concept spreading across the U.S. in which restaurant patrons choose both their portion and their price.

The Community Kitchen’s concept varies somewhat according to the particular model in a community, says Raschko, with each community kitchen’s vision a little different. What they all share in common is the idea of making healthy, prepared food more accessible in a café-style setting.

“It’s a local, sustainable organic model where you come in, choose your portion and choose your price,” says Raschko.
The 501(c)3 organization’s mission is to educate people to the importance of providing sustainable, ethically produced organic food, she says. “It’s not certified organic, but the animals are butchered humanely, and not caged.”

Healthy food is expensive, says Raschko, but fast food is subsidized, and when food is subsidized people don’t understand the value, and wasting food becomes a problem.

People need to consider the higher cost of wholesome food in light of the cost of paying for more health care due to the deficiencies of a less nutrient-rich, wholesome diet, she says.

“Trying to turn that around is a huge task,” says Raschko.

One World Spokane offers no set menu, which means less food waste, she says. Combine that with allowing customers to choose their own portion, and food waste is reduced even more, which means lower operating costs for the nonprofit, says Raschko.

She says customers also set their own prices, by choosing the portion size they want. “We have a suggested price for a medium-sized plate, with dessert for $7. Some customers are afraid to offer a price. If they have $5, we’ll accept that graciously. We also have a complimentary dish every day, which is strictly offered by donation. We believe that everyone has an opportunity to give something. If they don’t have money, they can volunteer,” she says. “There’s cleaning — everything that a restaurant entails.”

One customer knew how to work on computers and volunteered to fix One World Spokane’s computer as his contribution, she says.

“It’s a cooperative model. If you want to blog, you can blog for us. It all helps. I think everybody can contribute. We’ve made up jobs so everyone can eat. We’ve done it,” says Raschko. “Farmers work hard to grow food. If people get it for nothing, they don’t put any value on it,” she says. “There’s a bigger waste of food with a complimentary dish.”

She says One World Spokane’s customers include a fair number of vegans and vegetarians, and most prepare meals at home. “They appreciate the opportunity to eat out.”

The restaurant serves lunch Monday through Saturday and Dinner on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

A major U.S. corporation has now adopted the concept of a community kitchen: Panera Bread, which is publicly traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The firm’s nonprofit Panera café in St. Louis opened in May. A sign at the entrance says: “Take what you need, leave your fair share.” According to a May 18, 2010 article in USA Today, customers who can’t pay are asked to donate their time.

“This Panera thing is huge,” says Raschko. “This is Wall Street coming to this concept. What we were doing isn’t working. We have to start taking care of everybody.”

Raschko, who was reared in Calgary and spent years living in Kelowna, B.C., says, “It’s been a bit of a culture shock coming from — I’ll say it — a socialist mentality.”

She says more people are beginning to see it as, “How about if we help everyone in the community? It’s going to get better for everyone.”

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