Belton woman gets talk show donation for “Pay as You Can Café”

By Ben McCarthy

Executive Director of the Family Resource Center of Cass County, Shay Jefferson, spent her Valentine’s Day not being gifted chocolates and flowers, but instead $10,000 from Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson, which will be used to help remodel and build a new kitchen (“The Spot”) to provide hot meals inside the Bridge Over Troubled Water Food Pantry in Belton.

The decision to push forward with a full-service kitchen inside the food pantry to serve hot meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner began to take shape last fall. “The Spot” is still under construction, as Jefferson goes about remodeling the old Casey’s store where the Food Pantry has existed for four years.

“By the Grace of God, we have individual and business donors making all of this possible,” Jefferson said. “The kitchen remodel alone will cost about $25,000. Jennifer Hudson’s gift was very unexpected and very much needed.” 

The $10,000 gift was presented during The Jennifer Hudson Show on the Friday, February 16th episode. Jefferson was informed about the gift in real time, so viewers were seeing her genuine reaction on television. Hudson and Jefferson, who both spent time growing up in Chicago, reminisced about The Windy City during the segment, then Hudson gave Jefferson ample opportunity to highlight the work her organization is doing throughout the South Kansas City area. 

For Black History Month, Hudson’s show teamed up with American Family Insurance to help “celebrate dreamers who change the world.” The show’s producers learned about Jefferson’s work earlier this year, and contacted her on February 9th about flying into Los Angeles to be a guest on the show the following Wednesday, February 14th. The Belton resident flew out on the 13th, taped the show the following day, and was flying back into Kansas City on the 15th. The show aired the next day, as Jefferson was back into her routine at the food pantry, trying to get the store ready for a March grand opening. The Spot will be based on a very new, and very unorthodox concept of payment and financing. 

“The Spot will use a ‘pay if you can’ model,” Jefferson said. “We will take your order and tell you how much it costs and you will tell us if you can pay today.”

Jefferson says they will accept Venmo, Cash App, and other digital payments for customers who can pay down the road. She says it already takes about $320,000 a year to keep the pantry open, which is mostly collected from generous local donors (such as a donation of $100,000 from the KC-based Health Forward Foundation). The grand opening is tentatively scheduled for Monday, March 18th. Food will be served from 6am to 8pm, while the pantry will still close at 2pm. The mother of five (and grandmother of five) promises a nutrient dense menu, in line with what the food pantry offers.

“We will be here to serve all three meals, six days a week (resting on Sundays),” Jefferson said. “This isn’t going to be a burger joint or a bunch of fast food – we will have a focus on healthy options for people. You’ll see New York-style bagels in the morning, and maybe a lasagna dish at night.” 

Jefferson had already begun experimenting with prepared meals two years ago, and averaged over 100 recipients a day (and over 200 when they opened on Saturdays). Jefferson collects extensive data, provided voluntarily by those recipients, which paints a picture of how increasingly dire the situation is becoming in the area. 

“There’s growth in people coming in who have been refusing to eat so that their kids could instead or so they could afford to pay a bill,” Jefferson said. “72% of the people we serve have one working adult in the house so this is hardly an operation that serves the unemployed. The working class are the new ‘poor’.” 

Interest in working at The Spot is high, as Jefferson screens interested applicants she is finding from postings on Indeed.com. She hopes to find seven new employees to work the different shifts, Monday through Saturday. 

A Coca-Cola fountain drink machine was recently installed, where customers can get unlimited drinks for a subscription of $20 a month. She also envisions a meal subscription plan that will start at about $50 a month and provide patrons four meals per week. 

Jefferson had initially planned for a March 4th open house at The Spot, but further work to the kitchen won’t allow that to happen. 

“I initially wanted to open The Spot on March fourth” Jefferson said. “March fourth – because I thought of how we must “March forth” … that’s the only way we can keep this going.” 

You can donate to the Family Resource Center of Cass County and its services, such as Bridge Over Troubled Water Food Pantry, through Paypal, or visit mofamilyresource.org.