Short Summary
Greenville
South Carolina's first and only vegan restaurant is ready to expand. We
are a community oriented business that wants to help the upstate community get
healthy. We have been funded by community organizations and individuals
and we are here to serve. We have been warmly received by Greenville
which is finally ready for an all plant based restaurant.
Lifeit
Café has been open now for close to 10 months.
It has been exciting, challenging, and super hard work so far, but
totally worth it. Our original vision
was to create a hip, healing, learning, and nurturing environment. You can come and gaze at the local art on our
wall, express yourself at an open mic or learn how to make healthier choices
for yourself and family in one of our classes.
We set out to prove that healthy food really can taste good and I think
that we have accomplished that based on your reviews. We have come to the point that in order to
sustain ourselves and expand, we are in great need of a boost of capital. Listed below are some of our challenges and
some of our goals for expansion and we are asking for your help to raise
$15,000.
Some
of our equipment purchased from the restaurant auction for us to get open has
failed. We have been advised by the repair men that it is not worth
fixing and we just need to get new equipment. So our first need is to
replace equipment that we need to operate more efficiently.
Additional
signage is needed, we finally got signage close to the road, but it is needed
on our actual building because people are complaining that they still can't
find us.
Also
we have had many requests to package some of our customer favorites, such as
our house Vidalia Onion dressing, macaroons, and kale chips. We would
like to start off offering them to our customers as a quick grab and go option
and in the near future, expansion to health food stores. We need a
refrigerated merchandiser, inventory and packaging for that expansion to create
other streams of revenue for the cafe.
Lastly
we would like to focus on programs and classes that would help transform our
customers health because that is the main purpose of the cafe. We want to
make scholarships available for our programs, classes, and services to also
help those in need. What we need for
that again is to be able to purchase in bulk as well as getting additional
staff, to free up the chef and owner Latrice Folkes to create more
transformational programs and menus.
So
far Lifeit Cafe has gotten many rave reviews, created many loyal customers,
and have helped so many make better eating choices for their health. So
we are asking for your help for Lifeit Cafe to keep moving forward. We
want to be here and we hope that you want us to be here.
What We Need & What You Get
What
we need is $15,000
-
to replace old equipment that is not properly working and add new equipment for
grab and go expansion.
-
additional signage on building
-
buy inventory and produce in bulk for grab and go and transformational programs
-
Add additional staff
We
have great incentives for your contribution, so please take advantage of them
and make sure that you share them with others using the convenient sharing
tools available. Every little bit helps, no amount is too small. Thank
you in advance.
The Impact
The upstate needs Lifeit Cafe and we need you! You
helped us get open, now it is time to take it to the next level, so that we can
flourish as a whole.
Why
Crowdfunding?
We chose crowdfunding to help us raise capital because we
are already repaying loans that we have taken out to start the business. It has been difficult to obtain additional
capital needed from traditional lending sources. Also builds community which gives people more
stake in our business. Crowdfunding is
for the underdogs, hardworkers with big dreams that otherwise may not be able
to make their dreams happen. It is not
too much for one person, everyone chips in what their able to give for a great
return.
Thanking you in advance
