PAY-AS-YOUFEEL DINING
A restaurant focussed on social change welcomes everyone who walks through the door, whether they can pay for a meal or not.
A few years ago, Nick
Loosley stepped into the hospitality industry with a radical new idea. Diners would come into his restaurant, be treated to a three-course meal from locally acclaimed chefs, and only pay what they could afford. It could be $50 or $0 – and everybody was welcome.
The idea came to him while studying for his masters in the UK. At his small university, students were encouraged to grow their own food and sit together for two meals a day. “The meals were a huge ritual and important to the rhythm of the university,” he says. “That influenced me a lot, seeing the impact it was having on other people.” Loosley says he always had a passion for food and was interested in the potential for food to affect change in society. “This idea to try and understand what happens, or at least what problems I knew existed in the food system, that could be solved or partly solved through the act of people sharing cooking and sharing food together.”
Returning to New Zealand, Loosley set up Everybody Eats in 2017 with the goal of addressing three major problems: food waste, food poverty and social isolation.
Starting as a pop-up in Auckland’s St Kevin’s Arcade, the pay-as-you-feel restaurant has now opened its own permanent restaurant in Onehunga.
“YOU CAN’T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER.” NICK LOOSLEY
The restaurant is run by volunteers and invites local chefs to create a new menu every night, made from surplus ingredients collected from restaurants and supermarkets.
As the name suggests, everyone is welcome at Everybody Eats and invited to pay what they can for the meal. “Our intention was to be a place where everyone felt welcome. That’s why we give everyone the same food service and have no expectation of payment,” explains Loosley.
Since opening, Everybody Eats has diverted more than 30 tonnes of food from landfills while providing more than 30,000 meals to the community. This year, Loosley was named the 2020 Kiwibank New Zealand Local Hero of the Year in recognition of his work.
Among the challenges of running this unique dining concept, Loosley has learnt to leave his assumptions at the door. “There was this guy who was coming in for a long time that was a really well-dressed. I just assumed that he was a professional. I went around the tables asking everyone the same question: “How did you get here and where do you live?” He responded by saying, “I sleep in my van in the carpark on the roof.” I was completely blown. I had assumed he was well-off but it turns out he was homeless. What I’ve learnt is that you certainly can’t judge a book by its cover.” everybodyeats.nz