Our Vision
At Mayan Cafe, we believe in creating a work atmosphere where we all come together to share not just food, but a little bit of the light in us all with our guests. Now Mayan Cafe family is taking the opportunity to spread that light and love to others in our community. We proudly present our new collective, collaborative, passion project, Philanthropy Through Dining.
Philanthropy Through Dining was born from a staff member wanting Mayan Cafe to do more community outreach. Then, we gathered the names of organizations from our work family that closely aligned with their values and desire to help and voted on where to focus. We decided we would give our full attention to these two organizations for the 2023 year. Lastly, we excitedly got to work reaching out to these amazing organizations to find out what was most beneficial to them.
The Organizations
West Louisville Women’s Collaborative: wlwc4art.com
Their mission is to create and sustain artistic, peaceful spaces in the West End of Louisville. The founder, Mariel Gardner, began with another organization, Fifth Element, a garden that was open to the community to teach and feed them through sustainability. Now, WLWC and it’s council of women, have diligently fundraised and purchased a house to hold community conversations, art activities that join neighbors and a meditation labyrinth for anyone to come and walk and take time to recenter.
Feed Louisville: feed Louisville.org
This is an outreach organization who meets the daily, basic, human needs of the unhoused community. Feed Louisville’s team is out every day distributing hot food, snacks, bottled water, outdoor survival and harm reduction supplies and services. They build trusting relationships that are based on respect for the right to dignity and autonomy that all humans deserve.
How We Help
Mayan Cafe staff chose 1-2 local organizations to support throughout the year by way of
- donating food to their fundraisers and meetings
- raising money through our summer special menus
- providing PR and exposure to our customers for their missions
- participating in a food rescue program
How you Can Help
When you come into Mayan during our summer special menus, your dollars go further in supporting the community. There are QR codes available on our check presenters that allow you to look even further into these organizations and donate directly, or volunteer if you want to give even more. Either way, we appreciate you taking the time to help those that are doing important work to keep our community safe, fed, loved and at peace.