The Healthy World Cafe is a church project serving people healthy meals in exchange for volunteer work. In the past, the cafe served patrons at the York’s First Moravian Church, community festivals, and concerts. Now they have their own location at 41 N. Duke Street in York City.
So far, the cafe is only open on Wednesdays, 11:30 am to 1:30 pm, but with the newly rented location on S. George Street currently undergoing renovations, the Healthy World Cafe’s Vice Chairman Sarah Chain hopes to be open five days a week.
The cafe management doesn’t plan to expand to any other locations so quickly. With the location so close to Continental Square it “gives us a great opportunity to…join the energy of downtown York that’s been building for the past several years,” said Chain.
The Healthy World Cafe’s pay-as-you-can polity provides a way “for people to enjoy a good meal in a welcoming, non-stigmatized place over the ability to pay,” said Chain. “We have suggested prices, but people can always volunteer their time in exchange for a meal.”
The Healthy World Cafe dishes out only the best of York County food. Chain said the cafe uses goods from Brown’s Orchard and Farm Market and Perrydell Farm Dairy. Chain told that “York County has a rich agricultural heritage which we honor by sourcing our food from local and regional farms, farmers and suppliers.”
Their lunches mostly consist of salads, soups, homemade bread with hummus, and a huge variety of desserts. “We’ve baked our dried fruit and oatmeal cookies so much that we’ve taken to calling them Healthy World Cafe’s signature cookies!” said Chain.
Chain reports that their patrons constantly rave about the food. Through their Facebook page and official website, people are saying that they’d love to start something similar in their own communities.
As the cafe is completely run by volunteers, no one is paid other than the director, Liza Naylor. This also means that York Suburban students can be “hired”. Chain commented, “our age restriction for kitchen duties is 16 years old, but we often have front of house duties for younger teens.”
If anyone would like to sign up, Chain gave directions to go to the official site, healthyworldcafe.org, and look for the “Volunteer Opportunities and Sign-Ups” in the top right-hand corner.
Volunteer serving a patron. Photo submitted by Sarah Chain.