For 10 years, Heart-N-Soul Community Café has served hearty, healthy meals across the Fargo-Moorhead area with a “pay what you can” model. What began as a pop-up community café has grown into a mobile nonprofit café-on-wheels, bringing fresh and locally sourced meals directly to neighborhoods around the community. Over the past decade, the café has served more than 35,000 café meals and 55,000 sack lunches to community members across the region.
This Friday, June 12, Heart-N-Soul is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a community lunch, ribbon cutting, and remarks from founder Leola Daul at First Presbyterian Church in Fargo. Prairie Public’s Erik Deatherage sat down with Daul to talk about the café’s success, its payment structure, and the past 10 years of serving Fargo-Moorhead. Listen to the full interview above, or read an edited transcript below.
Heart-N-Soul’s 10th Anniversary Celebration
- Friday, June 12
- Ribbon Cutting: 10:30am
- Community Lunch: 11am-2pm
- First Presbyterian Church, 650 2nd Ave N, Fargo, ND
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
This transcript has been edited for clarity and length. Listen to the full interview by clicking the 'play' button above.
Heart-N-Soul is celebrating 10 years. How does that feel?
You know what, we are feeling very excited and grateful that we're celebrating 10 years. When you start a non-profit and a business, you never know if you're going to be around that long. We intentionally took things slow because our motto was that we wanted to be around for a long time. So we're very excited and grateful for the community and their support.
On being a consistent presence in the community
We try to have a consistent schedule where people know where we're at. We hear lots of times, “Thank you for helping me feed my family,” “Thanks for being here today,” “I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been here,” and “I haven't eaten in two days.”
And that's really, you know, it's, I don't know… it's hard to put words to it. But we're able to serve community that way because we have the support of the community with donations and grants.
We serve a lot of individuals that they're working, they're trying to make a better life for themselves and their families. And if we can help in a small way, we're honored and grateful that our community trusts us and come and eats with us. But I do say it, you know, we can we can provide the good food, but it takes a community to provide for everybody in the community.
What kind of food do you serve?
We try to serve local fresh food whenever possible. And our chef, Joe Swegarden, is amazing with flavors. So you might have something like a sloppy joe and sides, and we always serve dessert. We also have served chicken curry, tater tot hot dish. We kind of look what's available locally.
But typically all of our meals have a side salad with them or coleslaw, something that's hearty and healthy and going to stay with a person. And we always have a vegetarian option whenever possible, as well.
Where is the food sourced from?
We get a lot of our food from one of our wonderful partners is Sandhills Farms, we get a lot of our beef from her.
We also partner with local farmers. We've got a gentleman in Grand Forks where we get a lot of our greens from. And we’re getting asparagus right now from Verna Kragnes [at Prairie Rose Agricultural Institute for Research] and her team.
We can't do it without the local farmers. Some of the farmers are able to donate. Some of the farmers we do pay something for the food, as well. And we're okay with that because we know they're trying to make a living as well.
But the main thing is getting that fresh food out to the community.
You’re a 501C3 nonprofit. How do the economics of Heart-N-Soul work?
We rely on grants and donations. With Heart-N-Soul, it's a pay what you can afford. So, we have guests that come in and pay what they can. They volunteer with us. Some of our guests will pay what you would typically pay for supper, or pay it forward.
That helps us keep serving our community. And, you know, I say everybody's there for a different reason. Some of our guests are there because they're in need of a meal. Some of our guests are there because they want those positive social connections. Some of our guests are there to help a neighbor in need.
As you talked about, you need food to be healthy and nourished, but you also need those social connections for overall well-being. And so we try to do have both of that at Heart-N-Soul.
How did Heart-N-Soul start?
Back in 2013, I had seen the idea in a magazine — and I'm from Fargo, and [through] my life experiences, my work experiences, I knew Fargo was a very generous community, but I also knew there was individuals that were in need of a meal. And so I'd seen an idea in a magazine where they had a pay-what-you-can't-afford community café. I started going to some different summits with One World Everybody Eats, and Heart-N-Soul is a member now of One World Everybody Eats.
Then in 2016, I joined a co-starters group, and they gave us a challenge of trying your business idea or trying your idea.
At that time, I'd gone to a chef's association. I met Tracy Walvatne, and at the time she owned Josie's Corner Café. And we were looking for underutilized kitchens to pop up in, and she's like, “I have a location for you,” and they weren't open on Sundays. And so that's where we started out.
Then Casey from Square One Kitchens reached out, and we had big plans for 2020. We were using underutilized kitchens in faith communities, Square One, Josie's Corner Café, and then COVID happened.
Then the board and I discussed really what we do is a community piece, too, and we had the opportunity to purchase a food trailer. And that's something we never thought we would do — but it was really the best thing that we did, because then we could go and meet people where they're at. We had done a community assessment back in 2017, and transportation is lots of times the reason that people can't get to a hearty, healthy meal.
And so then we started the food trailer. A kind individual, an anonymous donor, helped us pay for that. And so, when I say a community café, it really is a community café. I mean, so many people have helped us to get to 10 years. It's volunteers that were here when we first started, and now we have a whole other group of volunteers, businesses, donations, and so that's how we're able to keep going.
Can you describe the community café on wheels?
In 2019, First Presbyterian Church reached out, and were generous enough to let us use their kitchen space to do the prepping. We have storage. We have an office space here now.
And so, with the mobile café, we move around to different neighborhoods, and we partner with other community nonprofits or businesses. We work with our community partners to determine where we're going to go. Some of the places we go, we go to the neighborhood church up in North Fargo. Milkmade has been a partner of ours since we started, and they're currently closed, but we use their location to bring our food truck.
This year we're excited we're going to be back over in Moorhead at the new library. And we also partner with Olivet Lutheran Church, and they have a food pantry when we're serving our meal. So really being on wheels has given us the opportunity to move around.
We also do lunches with businesses, and that helps us also. The cost of those meals are typically pay-it-forward meals, so then that helps us cover the cost of meals where we don't receive a lot of pay-it-forward meals.
Is there a food item you serve that people are always asking for?
Oh, you know, it kind of changes every year. Tater tot hot dish is popular. We have a sweet potato burrito, and then we also have your beef and bean burrito. Those are very popular. Our sloppy joes are popular.
And then something that's really popular as well is our harvest bowl. Chef Joe starts with the grain, and then he makes homemade hummus with white beans that are local from Moorhead. And then he has fresh greens, and then whatever veggies are available, he roasts some of those veggies, pickles some of those veggies, and then that goes all together with some tahini on top.
For people that are interested, how can they help out Heart-N-Soul?
There’s a few different things. Volunteer with us, because those help us cover costs. You can see we have five or six volunteers in there right now helping us prepare the meal.
And then we do have a sustaining donor program where you can go online and donate monthly and become part of the Heart-N-Soul family, and then we keep you updated on what's going on and have different activities throughout the year. You get Heart and Soul swag then, too. We also partner with shirts from Fargo, so you can order a shirt, and part of the funds from the shirt go to Heart-N-Soul.
And then, you know, just come and eat with us and support us, and I mean that's one of the best ways to be a part of what we're doing.
Tell us about the 10-year anniversary party.
We are very excited. We'll be here at First Presbyterian Church. We are bringing the food truck over, and we're excited to have the Fargo-Moorhead West Fargo Chamber will be coming to do a ribbon cutting, and then we will also have a guitar player.
It’s going to be a lot of fun. And we're going to have one of our guest chefs coming back, Lena, and she's making a Korean beef bowl.
Because I forgot to mention, lots of times we have guest chefs as well, so then people can share their talents with us, and we support them and buy all the groceries, and then they make what they're going to make. So [Lena] is coming back, and we'll have Heart-N-Soul cupcakes as well, and then Joe will have the Harvest Bowl and a Sloppy Joe.
Lastly, with all the people you’ve interacted with over the years, what’s one that sticks in your mind?
There's so many, but one thing that sticks with me is we used to have a mom and her kids come and join us every day, and then one day she left us, and she was always saying thank you, and she left us a note, and the note said, “Thank you for helping me feed my family over the summer. I don't know what I would have done without you. Your food is so good, and just, I always felt so welcomed.”
And you know, when you hear things like that, it's kind of like, okay, we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, but that really has always stuck with me.