The pay-what-you-can approach at Taste Community Restaurant addresses food insecurity with dignity and has proven its viability over the past seven years with more than 200,000 meals served. This has even convinced the city of Arlington to partner with the non-profit, opening its second location near the University of Texas at Arlington. 

Jeff (left) and Julie Williams (far right) own Taste Community Restaurant. The couple rely on volunteers to help run the restaurant.

The Near Southside restaurant’s secret sauce is its middle name: community. “It’s really a place where the entire community can get involved, and we want to see them get involved,” owner Jeff Williams says. “Even coming to eat is getting involved, because we’re bringing people together who wouldn’t normally share a meal together.” 

Another way locals engage with Taste is volunteering to wait on tables, run food and bus dishes. Whether diners are drawn to Taste because of the high quality, seasonal menu or they’re in need of an affordable and healthy meal, the only difference in their experience is what they decide to pay.

Williams says the expansion east couldn’t have happened without the partnership with the city of Arlington. He had given a TedX Talk at UTA in 2018 explaining Taste’s model and shared his own experiences with food insecurity as a child, which led him to start the restaurant. When the city happened to reach out, Williams was already looking to grow. “I really felt like there was still a need in Tarrant County,” Williams says. 

From working with Arlington to build out Taste in former municipal buildings, Williams has observed the care the city shows for residents by providing a needed service. In addition to being walkable to UTA, the zip code around Taste’s Arlington location has a median income of $50,200, nearly $30,000 less than the Tarrant County median of $78,872, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Taste Community Restaurant has served over 200,000 meals in the past seven years with its pay-as-you-can business model.

The city of Arlington isn’t the only investor in Taste’s future success. This spring, the non-profit received two grants from TCU’s philanthropy classes totaling $40,000. In addition, one of the students, “went on to represent Taste Project [the restaurant’s non-profit parent organization] at the Philanthropy Lab’s national summer program where it was awarded an additional $50,000,” Jeff’s wife and cofounder Julie Williams says. 

Beyond serving on Taste’s Board, Julie also serves on the board of One World Everybody Eats. The non-profit supports cafes that operate with the same pay-what-you-can model nationwide. Their annual event in August called National Everybody Eats Week promotes the same community approach to ending food insecurity.

Volunteers are essential to this work. Julie says it was one of her biggest concerns going into this project. They weren’t sure they would have enough help when Jeff set it up this way. “I have been sweetly surprised at the volunteers I get to meet who show up to do some of the hardest work I have ever known,” she says. 

Jeff and Julie Williams have made Taste Community Restaurant a “hub of hope in our community,” according to Jeff.

Jeff was surprised and amazed by just how many people were willing to volunteer and do the kind of hard work it takes to manage day-to-day operations at a restaurant. Nearly 27,000 hours were contributed by more than 1,000 volunteers, according to their 2023 tax filings. 

Although the Williams’ 9-year-old son can’t yet volunteer, he has been around the restaurant from the beginning. He loves dinosaurs, and when they opened Taste, the volunteers and staff hid small plastic dinosaurs all over the restaurant for him to find. It has become a tradition that now stretches into months-long dino-scavenger hunts. 

Not everyone at Taste is a volunteer. An on-site culinary job training called the Certified Fundamental Cook program employs those in need of a job and helps staff the kitchen, with some participants paid through state agencies. They offer a starting rate of $15.60, which is double the minimum wage.“It increases their overall earning potential,” Jeff says.

Taste graduated 71 apprentices from their 16-week CFC program and currently has 16 enrolled. Jeff says their placement rate is more than 90% with the Omni Hotel, Marriott (Toro Toro) and Texas Health Resources among the recent local hiring kitchens. 

Making a difference: The Taste Project graduated 71 apprentices from their 16-week Certified Fundamental Cook program with 16 currently enrolled.

Taste is accredited by the American Culinary Federation so students who want to continue their training can transfer what they’ve learned to any ACF-certified culinary school or further their education at Taste as a two-year Sous Chef apprentice.

Ellie Malveau, 21, and Nekeisha Davis, 38, both opted for the apprenticeship. Malveau worked for an animal shelter before realizing she wanted a different career. Davis is happy to finally pursue her long-held culinary dreams without the debt of traditional education. “I always seem to be happiest when I’m in the kitchen and putting all my ideas on a plate,” Davis says.

While the expansion into Arlington is currently the biggest project in the pipeline, they also hope to grow in other directions. Taste is looking at an additional Fort Worth location, a spot in Dallas and a more mobile kitchen. “We still have a dream to operate a food truck, specifically for disaster response when folks may be experiencing temporary food insecurity,” Jeff says. 

Like all restaurants that were open before March 2020, Taste felt the impacts of stop-the-spread closures as well as the increase in need for food during COVID-19. They operated every day, offering free curbside meals. “The line went down to QT,” he says. Their options always included a vegetarian and gluten-free offering to accommodate dietary restrictions. 

More than four years later, the pandemic’s impact is still noticeable. In 2019, approximately 74% of their revenue came from donations to the restaurant. “It’s less than that by a good margin,” Jeff says. “It has everything to do with the increased need in the community.” 

Initially, some patrons paid substantially more, some paid market rates and then those who received a subsidized meal. Jeff says they lost that middle category. This affects their bottom dollar. “We have to make sure there’s enough access to all the different people groups in the community,” he says. 

Their regulars dine two or three times a week. They know them on a first-name basis. “We get to share life together. I do get concerned when we don’t see one of our regulars because it usually means they are in the hospital,” he says.

Jeff calls Taste “a hub of hope in our community.” This Thanksgiving Day marks seven years since their first service. They had received their health permit earlier than expected, and Julie says Jeff wanted to give thanks for what God provided before jumping into their work. “There were so many details that we still had not worked out, but we were still stepping out in faith,” she says.