Fork Real Cafe Donating 1,500 Meals to School District Staff

Volunteers from the Fork Real Cafe and Fountain Springs Community Church are in the process of delivering free meals to nearly 1,500 school staff members as schools prepare to start classes on Sept. 8.

Katy Urban, Rapid City Area Schools spokeswoman, said the volunteers are "doing this to show their appreciation for the work that school staff do, especially during this challenging time" amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rhonda Pearcy, executive director at Fork Real Cafe, previously taught at Wilson Elementary and said she remembers parents who provided meals in the past at the beginning of the school year for teachers.

Pearcy said she wanted to "bless the schools" as teachers returned to their schools.

Local Cafe Serves Up Lunch for Rapid City Area Teachers and Staff

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KELO) — School begins in two weeks for Rapid City Area students. Meanwhile, teachers and staff are using this extra time to prepare for whatever this school year brings. That’s why one local cafe is stepping in to provide a warm meal and comfort for people who will soon be on the front lines.

While the halls here at Southwest Middle School look pretty empty right now, teachers are actually hard at work preparing for the school year ahead.

“We’ve been working in our classrooms and trying to get those things ready and we started a new math curriculum this year also. So we’ve been working a lot with training and getting ready with that new math curriculum,” Shannon Bren, 8th grade teacher, said.

Fork Real Cafe is a local restaurant, run by volunteers including Dawn Hatcher. The business is donating more than 1,500 meals for teachers and staff while they are preparing for the upcoming school year.

'Come to the Table' Offers Free Workshops on Understanding Social Differences

Two Rapid City businesswomen will host free workshops Aug. 29 and Sept. 2, with a goal of bringing the community together by understanding social differences through healthy writing, speaking and listening techniques.

The 'Come to the Table' sessions are organized by Leah Braun of Nsight Partners and Kate Meadows of Kate Meadows Writing & Editing. The first workshop is set for 10 a.m. to noon Aug. 29 at Rapid City Public Library, 610 Quincy St., while the second will be 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sept. 2 at Fork Real Cafe, 324 St. Joseph St.

Both workshops are free, but participation is limited to 20 participants each.

Meadow said the sessions are an attempt to spark healthy dialogue in a society that is increasingly polarized and fractured. Participants will explore how their roles and experiences might contribute to constructive community dialogue.

Eye on KELOLAND: Fork Real Community Cafe continues to give back to the community

A business in Rapid City is allowing people to pay-what-they-can for a warm meal in a nice setting.  And until it closes its door, the restaurant plans to continue serving the community in this way.

Rhonda Pearcy was a teacher before she founded Fork Real Community Cafe.

“I love teaching and I still think if you are a true teacher you will always be a teacher and so just from that I was lead to step aside and saw a lot of kids were in need of food,” Rhonda Pearcy, founder of Fork Real Cafe, said.

With that thought in mind, she decided to change directions on her career path.

“God asked me to take my two passions which is food and people and put it together and so this is the creation of that so bringing people together. Food is just that kind of centerpiece that everyone has to eat,” Rhonda Pearcy said.

When people dine at Fork Real Cafe, they can pay for their meal, pay-it-forward, or pay-what-you-can and volunteer to cover the meal.

“We didn’t want to repeat or reinvent the wheel of what any other nonprofit was doing in town, there’s no need to do that,” David Pearcy, Co-Founder, said.

Fork Real Cafe has been around for four and a half years now. Run by Rhonda, her husband David, and the countless amount of volunteers.

Fork Real Community Cafe offering free meals during this time of uncertainty

The non-profit pay what you can eatery is providing free meals this week, thanks to community food and monetary donations.

Since customers are not paying for food this week, they are encouraging customers to give back by volunteering locally when the time is right.

Their menu is limited due to lack of volunteers and but they still want to serve to the community during uncertain times.

Rhonda Pearcy, Co-Founder of Fork Real Community Cafe, says, “We want to provide an opportunity for anyone and everyone to be able to come in and especially kids who are not being able to eat breakfast and lunch at schools, – it’s really about the normalcy. ”

The cafe ensures they are taking proper safety precautions and they are also offering curb side pick up with a phone call order. The number is (605) 718-5020.

Lunch is served Tuesday–Friday from 11:00am–1:30pm. Family-Style Dinner on Sundays from 11am-2pm.

The Ministry of Fork Real Community Cafe

Video by Fountain Springs Church

Fork Real Community Cafe is presented with Sustainability Award

Rapid City Council met tonight and presented the Sustainability Award for the month to Fork Real Community Cafe. These awards recognize projects that contribute to the viability of the community and its economy. Fork Real is a non-profit “pay what you can” community cafe, offering fresh farm-to-table meals with a variety of options to pay. Options to pay include paying the value of your food with cash, pay it forward by paying for the customers behind you, or volunteering your time back to the cafe for the meal.

Local non-profit receives Rapid City Sustainability Award

The City of Rapid City is recognizing Fork Real Community Café is the recipient of the Rapid City Sustainability Award for the month of October.

Fork Real Community Café, located at 324 St. Joseph Street is a non-profit “pay-what-you-can” community café that offers a welcoming environment and fresh farm-to-table meals. Payment options are: pay the value of the meal, pay it forward by paying for someone else’s meal or volunteer in exchange for a meal.

According to Lysann Zeller, chair of the City’s Sustainability Committee, Fork Real Community Café is being recognized with a Sustainability Award for their use of local, seasonal foods from area community gardens and individuals, also for their efforts to minimize food waste, promotion of community involvement through the use of volunteers to operate Fork Real, and serving as a model of providing food and meals to all individuals, regardless of their ability to pay, thereby helping to build a more inclusive community.

“The Sustainability Committee finds this project to be a wonderful example of economic, social and environmental sustainability in Rapid City,” said Zeller.

The award will be presented to Dave and Rhonda Pearcy, founders of Fork Real Community Café, at Monday’s City Council meeting, 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers.

Article from NewsCenter1

Help needed: 23 South Dakota nonprofits vie for national grant dollars

Twenty-two Sioux Falls and South Dakota nonprofits have been approved to take the next step in a national competition for grant money, and they need our help to get them to the next stage.

Through "A Community Thrives," the Gannett Foundation, sponsored by the USA TODAY Network's parent company Gannett Inc., will offer more than a dozen grants totaling $2.3 million to organizations trying to improve their communities. 

The Sioux Falls nonprofits, whose work in the community covers a wide range of services affecting residents of all ages, entered a fundraising stage last week. In this phase, they will work to reach local fundraising goals in order to be eligible for grants. Winners will be announced on or around June 1. 

For 2019, A Community Thrives will award 16 grants and bonus promotions nationwide. Three participants will receive $100,000; seven will receive $50,000; six will receive $25,000; and weekly bonus promotions will total $200,000.

Donate to Fork Real Cafe’s campaign here.

Join Us In Growing Fork Real Community Café!

Fork Real Community Café is excited to be part of this year’s Crowdsource fundraising competition sponsored by USA Today. Last year through this fundraising event we were granted $50,000 from USA Today. With this grant we were able to move to our new location, a centrally located, higher capacity, and disability friendly building in downtown Rapid City. Read about it here.

Starting this TODAY, we will partner with Crowrdise again to raise operating dollars and compete for a grant up to $100,000.

The goals are simple:

1. Raise awareness about Fork Real Community Café

2. Raise a minimum of $3,000 in on-line fundraising to be considered as a candidate for one of 12 grants worth up to $100,000. Whoa!

A donation to Fork Real Community Café will help us continue to create a sense of belonging, provide healthy meals to all, and create a bond with members of our community. Fork Real Café invites you to be part of this growing organization. Will you join us?

WHAT YOUR DONATION GOES TOWARD

Thanks to last year’s grant we were able to relocate the café to our new location on St. Joseph Street. This is new location has allowed the organization to grow its operations from just a few meals served to more than 3,909 meals (that’s not even counting desserts!) served since November 12th, 2018. Here’s how the concept works: the café is open for lunch service only Monday-Friday from 11-1:30. All are welcome to eat at the café regardless of means. Patron can pay by cash, credit or volunteer an hour in exchange for their meal. This unique concept allows people that cannot afford to pay for a meal to volunteer and help prepare the café for opening or they can help with closing duties. This creates a sense of dignity for people that want to serve or give back to the community. It’s a hand-up and not a hand-out. 

The café has grown a base of volunteers that come every day to love on people by serving. Those volunteers help with food prep, cleaning, busing tables and serve as door greeters. From the time a guest walks through the door to the time they leave, they need to feel welcome to a place that’s more than just about food, it’s about community. Fork Real Community Café is that place.

Fork Real café has been a place for personal growth, beyond our family of staff and volunteers. Rhonda, the executive director reached out to the Department of Corrections over a year ago and created a partnership with the minimum prison unit in town. Rhonda and her husband Dave transport 3 gentlemen that are serving time for non-violent convictions 5 days per week. These guys work alongside skilled kitchen staff and learn different skills throughout the café. One of the first guys, John, served at the café for eight months. He started out washing dishes but soon moved in to food prepping and dessert making. John was eventually paroled from prison and started applying for jobs based on his experience at Fork Real. Right away, he was hired by a local bakery as their pastry chef. Fork Real has become a positive place for job-skills training and a spring-board for future employment.

You, the community, made this growth possible with helping us reach our fundraising goal to qualify for last year’s Community Thrives grant from Gannett Foundation. Just look what you helped bring to life…a COMMUNITY Café in downtown Rapid City! Let’s grow this together.

Keeping Things Real with Fork Real Café

What happens when you bring together people form all walks of life; serve them real, home-cooked, locally grown, hearty food get rid of the TVs and put down the smartphones; and encourage people to make genuine conversation?

That is the question Rhonda Pearcy asked herself in 2016 when she founded Fork Real Café. Originally a catering business, Pearcy moved to a nonprofit restaurant model in September 2017 in the basement of the Fairmont Creamery Building. In November last year, Fork Real moved to a newer, permanent location in the heart of downtown Rapid City on the main level of a building, making the restaurant more accessible to patrons.

Fork Real is conveniently located at 324 Joseph St., which Pearcy said reels in customers from all walks of life. They also continue to cater, which Pearcy calls “the cheapest and most brilliant marketing we can do.”

“We are across from the Courthouse, so we have lawyers who come in, we have police who come in,” she said. “We also have homeless who come in and eat, and then we have all the in-betweens, just families struggling from day to day as well as families coming in wanting to enjoy a really good meal. We’re about real people from all walks of life, and real food.”

Fork Real Cafe celebrates grand opening

A local nonprofit is helping the fight against hunger with the mantra, “Real people, sharing real food, in real conversation.”

The Fork Real Community Cafe celebrated its grand opening Monday at their new, permanent location at 324 Saint Joseph St.

It’s been a long time coming for this pay-what-you-can eatery, with a mission of increasing food security in the community. They serve lunch five days a week, where customers can either pay the value of the meal, pay a little extra or volunteer in exchange for a meal.

Everyone who helped bring the café to fruition is excited for the new digs.

A Work In Progress

Hey Rapid City! By now, ya’ll have figured out that FORK REAL Cafe is moving. Remodeling at 324 St Joseph has been on-going since August. Why the move? The simple answer is, the location and it is street-level! This space is more accessible, it is much larger which will better serve the community. We are grateful to the building owners, the volunteers and the connections with the community for the work and collaboration to make this a welcoming place for everyone. Make sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram for re-opening date.

Fork Real Café receives $50,000 for "pay-what-you-can" eatery in South Dakota

A palpable sense of thankfulness permeates the din of the daily lunch rush at the Fork Real Café, a small eatery in downtown Rapid City, South Dakota that is intent on improving lives – one meal at a time.

In the dining room of the “pay-what-you-can” café – a 2018 recipient of $50,000 from the “A Community Thrives” grant program organized by Gannett/USA Today Network -- Andrea Maestas, owner of a local medical billing business, was gratified to find a healthy Cuban sandwich and diced fruit cup made with care from fresh, local ingredients for only $5.

In the cramped kitchen, a jail inmate in an orange T-shirt was happy to be out on work release, even as he scrubbed a metal kettle that once held chili.

And whirling around it all was Robert Burns, a formerly homeless drifter who has found stability and a sense of purpose by volunteering at Fork Real Cafe, where he gets a good meal and positive encouragement in exchange for doing whatever chores need doing.

“It’s a family atmosphere here, it truly is,” Burns said.

Burns, now sober and living with a friend, credits his turnaround to Rhonda Pearcy, the founder of Fork Real Café who believes that healthy food, conversation, respect, open-mindedness, spirituality and creating strong relationships are all elements of building a positive community.

“She’s just a person who cares, and she shows it every day,” Burns said of Pearcy.

Pearcy conceived of Fork Real Cafe in 2016 after retiring from teaching and seeking a unique way to make things better in Rapid City, a tourism town of 75,000 people in western South Dakota. After years of volunteering at her church and the local homeless mission, Pearcy heard of a “pay-what-you-can” style café in Florida and decided to visit in 2016.

Cafe Connections

In March 2018, we traveled to other community cafes to gain in-person, hands-on experience in other cafes. Our first stop was A Place At The Table in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. Executive Director Maggie Kane and her team dedicated 3 years to finding the right location to reach people from all walks of life. At 300 Haggart Street, you will find a beautiful hip cafe, where they serve delicious breakfast and lunch options. Be sure to check out the delicious waffles! 

Our next stop was 3.5 hours West of Raleigh, in the beautiful high country of Boone. In the heart of Appalachian State University and downtown, Renee and Tommy cook up delicious daily lunch meals for the locals at F.A.R.M. Cafe. The layout of the cafe is unique. The building was once an old-fashion drug store that included a sit-down dining experience. The locals loved the place and when Executive Director Renee Boughman moved-in over 6 years ago, she didn't change the lay-out. The seating around the bar allows interaction between the guests and staff on a daily basis. Her and her staff feed everyone, regardless of means.

Meet Steve And Angie

We met Steve and Angie a few years ago. Soon after sharing the idea of a "Pay-what-you-can café" over dinner, they became a monthly sustainer of Fork Real Community Café. They travel abroad in an RV serving other communities with their big hearts. Thank you Steve and Angie. We are better together!

Be the Change: Fork Real Cafe

One local couple is heading out on a new business venture to open up a restaurant in Rapid City.
But the purpose behind the cafe is about more than just food.

Co-owner of Fork Real Cafe, Rhonda Pearcy says, "I've always had a passion for cooking. It's kind of how I love on other people is cooking." Now Rhonda and her husband are taking that passion and turning it into a career, working to open a new restaurant in Rapid City.

But this cafe is about more than the menu. They're mixing food and community service together as one, inspired by One World, Everyone Eats.

David Pearcy says, "We're so blessed in this community. We felt like we need to provide an opportunity to give back, whether it be people who are living paycheck to paycheck and may need that meal at the end of the month or somebody who has no place to go."

Faces of Fork Real: Meet Tracy!

Welcome to The Faces of Fork Real! where we highlight a different community member that contributes to the success of Fork Real and the community of Rapid City!

Fork Real Community Cafe is recognizing Tracy Godbe this month. Tracy volunteers numerous hours making beautiful improvements to the website and creating cool Facebook posts. She fell in love with Fork Real Cafe after attending our initial volunteer orientation just a few months ago. Tracy will be leaving us soon to attend medical school and we will definitely miss having her around. Our team is better because of you Tracy. We wish you the best as you peruse your medical career.

Favorite Fork Real Food? 

"Pork Stir-Fry"

What do you do at Fork Real? 

"Website design and Marketing"

What is an interesting hobby that you have?

"I like the idea of meeting people from all different backgrounds and sharing ideas and experiences over a tasty (and healthy!) lunch. It promotes wellness not only through a healthy diet but also community involvement."

If you could invite anyone, dead or alive, to lunch at Fork Real, who would it be and why? 

"Michelle Obama. She is so smart and dedicated to improving the word we live in. I would love to hear her stories about the work she has done and get some advice on shaping my own career path."

If you were given a million dollars, what would you do with it?

"Pay for med school which I will be attending this fall! Take my family on a fun vacation, then donate the rest to community programs."

What is a current goal that you have?

"Finding a healthy work/life balance." 

What do you like about living in Rapid City?

"There are so many neat things to do and interesting people to meet! Rapid City is growing at a fast pace and it’s exciting to be a part of."

What is your favorite part about Fork Real?

"I like the idea of meeting people from all different backgrounds and sharing ideas and experiences over a tasty (and healthy!) lunch. It promotes wellness not only through a healthy diet but also community involvement."

Faces of Fork Real: Meet Robert!

Welcome to the kickoff of one of our newest features: The Faces of Fork Real! Every two weeks, we will highlight a different community member that contributes to the success of Fork Real and the community of Rapid City!

This week's featured community member is Robert Burns, who has been volunteering at the cafe since October 2017. He says, "Fork Real Community Cafe has given me purpose. Every day, I look forward to going to the cafe because I know that people truly care about me. It is a positive and caring place for me to be."

Favorite Fork Real Food? 

 Korean Beef & Broccoli

What do you do at Fork Real? 

Everything. I do whatever is needed to be done.

What is an interesting hobby that you have?

 Exercise/Going to the gym

If you could invite anyone, dead or alive,to lunch at Fork Real, who would it be and why? 

Jesus Christ, because he brings hope.

If you were given a million dollars, what would you do with it?

Buy property for a house and have lots of dogs

What is a current goal that you have?

I have met a recent goal of paid employment. Fork Real Cafe has helped me connect with the Department of Labor. I am now able to earn a livable wage.

What do you like about living in Rapid City?

The people. The people I have met is why I live in Rapid City.

The Girl Who Gives Back

Volunteer...

I am the Founder and Executive Director of Fork Real Community Café, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to increasing food security and community building through a unique pay-what-you-can restaurant model. In phase III, Fork Real will open the doors to everyone, regardless of means, to enjoy a nutritious home-cooked meal with dignity. Fork Real proudly serves alongside other organizations in Rapid City to strengthen relationships in our community while networking globally with OWEE-One World Everyone Eats.

It’s a blessing to be part of Fountain Springs Church where serving others is not what you do, but how you live it out day by day, with Love, INC where people are empowered with the tools to heal brokenness with unconditional love, with Safe Family where children are safe and loved, with the local mission and the Hope Center who give a powerful voice to the homeless, and the loving hearts of individuals in our area who do their part to make a difference.