This restaurant runs with no trash cans. ‘It’s the right thing to do’ ‘It’s an honor to serve your family.’ You’ll say, ‘We are truly blessed’ ‘We’re so thankful.’ The whole thing is just…beautiful.’
‘I’ll never forget that moment when I first saw the dumpster,’ says Jennifer, a mother of three. She’s one of about two dozen volunteers with the restaurant whose mission has been to take the place of a broken-down dumpster and turn it into something extraordinary for the community.
‘It was unbelievable, because it’s like nothing I ever saw before. There’s a sense of…humility. The beauty of what we did is that it helped somebody. We came to do this thing for our community and our family. It’s something that I’ll remember forever.’
Over the years, those volunteers have given away money to fund the dumpster project, even sold some to raise funds. Jennifer says her experience is a good example of why ‘everybody’s an entrepreneur. ‘If you know someone else is going to give you a chance, then you should do what you can for them.’
As the dumpster fills up for the next few days, you can feel the pride growing in the community—the pride of everyone who believes in the project.
‘We come here,’ says Rachel, a mother of three. ‘We come because the food is great.’
You could see that pride shining through when the dumpster finally emptied yesterday afternoon. The restaurant had been completely packed up and was ready to serve its customers when a truck with the City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works showed up to take away the dumpster.
‘We’re so proud to be part of this restaurant and this town,’ the cook says.
That pride is now reflected in the trash left behind.
The garbage is now recycled and turned into a valuable element—a valuable component of the restaurant, at least. With all the trash taken away, the restaurant is now more than 90 percent full instead of the 55 percent it was before. On Wednesday night