Mothers and children, as well as other people living in temporary housing or shelters, account for nearly 70% of the homeless population in the Denver metro. The majority of those unhoused people can be found in the downtown area including the 5-Points neighborhood.
Adjacent to these homeless encampments are hip coffee shops, retail spaces offering expensive clothing lines and trendy farm-to-table restaurants. The Preservery was one such restaurant. Co-owners Obe and Whitney Ariss recall being struck by how many people were living in this neighborhood without shelter. During the winter of 2020, when indoor dining was shut down, Obe and Ariss devised a plan to help.
“When the first snowstorm of the season hit, I drove to work that morning knowing the restaurant would be ridiculously slow and noticing all the tent encampments in the neighborhood blanketed in white,” says Whitney Ariss. “I thought what a shame it was that we had a team of people ready to cook, a beautiful kitchen to cook in, but that nobody would come. Meanwhile, all these folks living without proper shelter are struggling to survive and truly need a hot meal. An idea dawned on me: What if we can get support from the community to feed people in need?”
Soon after her initial idea, Whitney and Obe added the option of a Giving Meal to their restaurant menu. This allowed guests to purchase a meal for someone in need and enabled the restaurant to cover all the food and labor costs associated with meal production and delivery.
So began The Preservery Foundation, a 501(c)(3), nonprofit. The foundation is committed to delivering hot, wholesome meals directly to tent encampments in the Denver metro. Each meal has a balance of protein, vegetable, starch and fat in order to maximize nutrition and satiation.
Every dollar donated through their website goes directly towards the Giving Meal program, with every $10 providing one hot meal. To date they have provided nearly 6,000 meals to those most critically in need.
And while the Preservery restaurant closed its doors in 2022, Whitney and Obe believe The Preservery Foundation can continue to grow the Giving Meal program by connecting more restaurants to hunger relief efforts. “We love restaurants and restaurant people and we have an intimate understanding of how difficult it is for a restaurant to give back to the community because, especially these days, profit margins are ridiculously thin.”
Denver-based restaurant Nocturne has added a $10 Giving Meal menu item to their online ordering system and the Arisses hope others will follow suit. Restaurants could also designate a portion of proceeds to the program.
Whitney says, “Knowing that there are enough cooks, enough kitchens and enough food to feed every hungry person in our community, we believe we can fight hunger by connecting the folks already doing the work of feeding people with folks who don’t have access to hot meals.”
