For many people, the challenge of finding a job can be considerable. For people with mental and physical health issues, substance abuse and living in poverty, the barriers to finding gainful employment can be enormous. Potluck is a nonprofit café that provides a flexible and understanding work environment, with support for their mental health, substance abuse or living conditions. Potluck Café’s meal program also offers nutritious meals that are either free or subsidized (about $2.50 per meal) in a communal environment where the residents share a meal.

Potluck ran the busy café with a small number of staff, a manual ordering system, a delivery system using the owners own vehicles, multiple business lines, and ad hoc marketing. A team of SVPartners helped by securing an in-kind software donation to enable Potluck to take catering orders online. This system not only replaced the manual ordering system previously in place, but increased Potluck’s ability to market themselves by special email offers and through their website. With more orders rolling in, SVP provided funding to purchase a delivery van, additional catering equipment, new signage for the café and Potluck’s logo was added to the delivery van.

In the first two years that SVP has been working with Potluck, revenues from catering and the café have tripled to add nearly $400,000 to the social venture. In addition, Potluck staffs 11 full-time employees with multiple employment barriers and have added 5 part-time positions for people who are not yet ready for the rigor of a full-time job but would like to work when they are able. Potluck has also been able to increase the impact of their meal program by providing 3,000 (an increase of 500) free or subsidized meals each month to the DTES’s most needy residents.

http://www.potluckcatering.com/