There are a variety of restaurants that you can find around the world that offer unique payment systems, including options for customers to pay whatever they can afford, rather than having to pay a certain amount for the items they want.
All over the place, from Amsterdam to Vienna, Colorado, India, Australia, New Jersey, Russia, and more areas, you can find restaurants that are looking to give back to their communities in unique ways with these alternative options.
In Alabama, there is one restaurant known as Drexell and Honeybee's that operates in a similar fashion, having no prices on their menu.
There are many individuals who are struggling to make ends meet in Alabama, just as there are across the United States and elsewhere. This restaurant is helping many of those people to be able to afford a good meal when they otherwise wouldn't have had such an option available. Whether it's the elderly who are on a fixed income, or students trying to live on a tight budget, they see guests coming in of all ages.
Drexell and Honeybee's has a donation only approach that is helping to meet the need of those who might be going hungry in their community. It has become a favorite with many since it has been in operation for several years now; they operate with the motto: We Feed The Need
All of the contributions are anonymous and you can give in a closed off curtained area, no one will ever know how much you were able to give. The restaurant has been able to generate roughly $110 per day with the most common donation being around $5 from those who visit. The restaurant uses volunteer staff and sometimes people also work there who have agreed to work in-exchange for food.
The menu changes often but has been known to feature dishes such as mac and cheese, squash, okra, beef stew, mashed potatoes, cornbread, and peach cobbler.
Drexell & Honeybee's is a part of Carlisa Inc., a nonprofit ministry. The two owners, L. Thomas-McMillan and her husband F. McMillan, thoroughly enjoy working together and Thomas-McMillan admits that it was her Christian faith that motivated her to start and continue to do this charity work that they've been doing. Along the way they have had to pour their own resources into the restaurant. Most days they will start at 6 in the morning and leave around 4 in the afternoon but they say that the long hours are worth it, when they hear the positive feedback from the guests.
Right now, the owners of the restaurant aren't taking a salary and they are running the venue as a charity project.
It is incredibly tough work, especially if there isn't enough money to pay the bills and the owners have to get the funds from their own pockets to carry it forward. It's also impossible to know who might be exploiting this experiment and taking advantage of a free meal, but that's the price you pay when you want to try and help those in need. So far, many of these venues have been able to make it work, the generosity of their guests has come through and they have donated enough to cover many of the costs even when they did not have to. That has helped these restaurants that operate on a 'donation only' basis be able to serve hundreds of thousands of meals around the world over the years.
