Article

Federal Donuts hopes to kickstart 'radical' hospitality with partnership

If Rooster Soup Co.'s crowdfunding effort gets off the ground, its profits will be donated to helping those in need.

June 24, 2014 by Brenda Rick Smith — Editor, Networld Media Group

The principals of Philadelphia’s Federal Donuts are hoping their community members will help them kickstart their idea for providing "radical hospitality" to people in need.

Federal Donuts has launched a Kickstarter campaign aimed at raising $150,000 to cover start-up costs for a new restaurant called Rooster Soup Co. All profits from Rooster Soup Co. will help fund the Broad Street Hospitality Collaborative, a Philadephia non-profit that serves up meals, services and community to the city's most vulnerable.

Federal Donuts partners' are projecting first year profits for Rooster Soup Co. at $50,000, and perhaps growing to $100,000 annually after five years. The steady stream of income generated by the partnership will help Broad Street to consistently fulfill its promises to the people it serves, and extend its reach.

"It will enable us to serve a lot more people sustainably," said Bill Golderer, the founding pastor and convener of the Broad Street Hospitality Collaborative's parent organization.

The idea was born out of the realization that Federal Donuts was throwing away about 1,000 lbs. of chicken backs and bones each week. At first, Steve Cook and the five other Federal Donuts partners thought they would make soup out of the backs and bones and donate it. But a conversation with Golderer helped Cook understand that food donations can be more of a curse than a blessing.

Also, the Broad Street Hospitality Collaborative is also emphatically not a soup kitchen, explains Cook, who has served on Broad Street's advisory board for two years. Guests at Broad Street don't stand in line waiting for their meal to be ladled onto a tray. They are seated at round tables decorated with centerpieces and tablecloths. Volunteers serve guests their meals on real china, with real flatware. The meals are served in what's been dubbed the "Cathedral Dining Room," a soaring, art-filled space that was formerly the sanctuary of the Chambers-Wiley Memorial Presbyterian Church.

"It’s not a transactional approach, it’s a holistic approach," said Cook. "They want people to basically experience the same level of hospitality you or I would experience in a nice restaurant."

The result? Broad Street feels more like a household than a soup kitchen. Guests are treated with dignity and respect. Conversation and relationships are fostered between staff and guests.

"Their approach to the hospitality was the same as ours," said Cook.

"Our core business is hospitality," said Golderer. When he started seeking partners, he reached out to folks in the hospitality industry, and found a kindred spirit in Cook. "Hospitality is hospitality, whether you can pay or not."

Drawing circles instead of lines

Cook credits Philadephia's embrace of Federal Donuts' admittedly off-the-wall concept – fried chicken and donuts – with the success of the business. Just three years after the opening of its first store, Federal Donuts now has five locations across the city and serves up thousands of orders each week. Cook and his partners wanted to include Philadelphians in their plan to help Broad Street.

"I live in Philadephia, and I walk by homeless people on the sidewalk every day and I wonder what I can do to help," said Cook.

Opening a restaurant where 100 percent of the profits support the poor and homeless allows Cook and other members of the community to help. Rooster Soup Co. customers will be making a donation every time they purchase a bowl of soup.

"Instead of a straight line between us and Broad Street, we wanted to create a circle with the whole community," said Cook. "This was an opportunity not just between us and a non-profit, but between us and the community."

The desire to include the community in the process also informed the decision to raise funds via Kickstarter, said Cook. He and his partners probably could have turned up donors who would underwrite the cost of starting Rooster Soup Co. with the stroke of a pen, he said. But inviting the community to fund the start-up widens the circle and allows more people to invest.

The success of the campaign may also be a bellwether for continuing support, adds Cook.

"The Kickstarter campaign is a proxy for how the community will support the restaurant. If a lot of people fund it, then they are likely to become customers," he said.

Kickstarter backers will also be rewarded with gifts that range from quirky to social. For instance, pledges of $25 or more earn the backer a "Mad Libs-style Letter of Recommendation to the Afterlife of Your Choosing" signed by one of Broad Street's ordained ministers. A pledge of $500 or more earns a review of your business plan and consultation with Steve Cook. A pledge of $10,000 or more earns the backer a 5-course dinner for eight guests prepared by Michael Solomonov, the James Beard Award-winning chef who is also one of Federal Donut's principals.

Value added

In addition to kicking in Rooster Soup Company's main ingredient every week, Cook and his partners will also donate their management expertise and marketing skills to ensuring the restaurant's success. The donation of their time and expertise could be valued in the six-figure range annually.

For Cook, lending the expertise of Federal Donuts leadership team to an ongoing project is part of the attraction.

"We like to play with food and we like to come up with ideas. The fact that there is no profit motive might seem a little weird, but the satisfaction comes more from the hospitality side and creating something new," said Cook.

"They are not just doing this for us, they are doing this with us," added Golderer.

Day to day operations will be handled by the restaurant's employees. The restaurant could create as many as 10 full-time jobs. If the Kickstarter campaign is successful, Cook estimates Rooster Soup Co. could be up and running in as little as six to 12 months.

While the concept isn't entirely fleshed out, Cook imagines the restaurant will carry on the community theme running through the project. He envisions a counter where guests gather to eat their soup.

"I want it to feel like you can go in there and it’s like a 'Cheers' thing -- everyone knows your name," said Cook.

The Kickstarter campaign for Rooster Soup Co. runs now through July 26.

About Brenda Rick Smith

Brenda has more than 20 years of experience as a marketing and public relations professional. She invested most of her career telling the story of entrepreneurial non-profit organizations, particularly through social media.

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