At The Long Table in Gloucestershire, England, diners sit communally and enjoy menu items like dal with honey-glazed carrots, bread and butter pudding, and lasagna. All ingredients are sourced with the goal of minimizing waste, and when it’s time to take care of the bill, patrons are simply asked to pay what they can.
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The unique not-for-profit establishment has served around 20,000 people in the last year, many of whom ate for free, and spared more than 3.7 tons of food from being tossed — all while providing livable wages to its 22 employees, The Guardian reports.
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“We are, at our simplest, a restaurant,” explained Will North, The Long Table’s general manager. “But really what we are is an amazing restaurant where we prioritize being a real living wage employer, and we prioritize the kinds of suppliers who not only prioritize the planet, but people as well.”
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North and team are also focused on helping others host their own pay-as-you-can cafes, saying, “We hold a space where we are all collectively trying to answer a question: ‘What if everyone in our community had access to great food and people to eat it with?’