Cooking for a cause: Restaurateurs large and small benefit charity

Eight years ago, Reading Terminal Market restaurateurs George and Kim Mickel joined a mission trip to El Salvador and began a love affair with villagers there whom they now visit annually with food, medicine and supplies.

So when space in the center of the market became available last year, they decided to combine two of their passions: providing good food and doing good.

The couple behind the Reading Terminal Market stands By George! and Mezze (which they recently closed) have opened Hunger Burger to sell "patties with a purpose." For every burger sold, the Mickels will provide a meal for a child locally, nationally or internationally.

"We were inspired by Toms," the California-based shoe company that gives away a pair of shoes for every pair purchased, George Mickel said. "Why can't we do this in the food business?"

The philanthropic spirit has long run deep in the restaurant industry. But now it seems like a must-do for many Philadelphia restaurateurs.

Some of the biggest names - such as Marc Vetri and Jose Garces - have established nonprofit organizations to focus on projects that matter to them. Others, like Rouge owner Rob Wasserman, partner with an existing charity to raise funds for individuals or groups in need. In Wasserman's case, he runs the annual Burger Brawl competition, to raise money for the city school district.

And sometimes the inspiration comes from the outside, as was the case for Mason Wartman, owner of Rosa's Fresh Pizza in Center City.

The $1-a-slice pizza shop had been open for a few months when the customer asked if he could pre-buy a slice for a homeless person. It was a no-brainer, Wartman said. He sold the slice, then put a Post-It note on the wall commemorating the moment.

Now, customers prepay for 30 to 40 slices of pizza a day, about 10,000 slices total thus far. That single note has grown to thousands of colorful messages on the shop's walls, bearing messages like "Enjoy!" "Yum Yum!" and "Free Pizza from Spain."

Clearly, the increased sales are good for the bottom line, Wartman said. It's also garnered a lot of media hype for the store, including a feature on Ellen DeGeneres' talk show. But Wartman said he's kept it up because it just makes sense.

"Why wouldn't you do it?" asked Wartman, who joked that his original plan had been "to become a billionaire off dollar pizza and give it away when I was old and infirm. But it didn't work out that way.

"This pay-it-forward model is a lot like Google's model of 'Don't be evil.' "

What's happening in Philadelphia is happening nationwide, said Ashley Mills, director of communications for the National Restaurant Association. "So many people in the business have been given great opportunities and have worked hard and been successful, they're eager to give back when they can," she said.

Nine out of 10 restaurants are involved in some sort of charitable giving, Mills said, and the nation's one million restaurants collectively make $2 billion to $3 billion in charitable contributions a year. Steve Cook, one of the brains behind Cook N Solo and the restaurants Zahav and Federal Donuts, said hospitality has to be genuine to be good. The time and effort his team is putting into establishing Rooster Soup Co., a freestanding soup restaurant that will turn over all profits to Broad Street Ministries, is showing its commitment to fine service to everyone, proof that it's in the business for more than profits.

"Every day we aspire to provide genuine hospitality, instead of just rote service. The people who are the most financially successful in this industry are after more than money," he said. "On one level, this project is a gut check: Are we in this for the right reasons? Rooster Soup helps answer that questions."

Restaurant partners Vetri and Jeff Benjamin decided to form their own charity to address specific interests that mattered to them: providing healthy food to hungry children while also teaching healthy living skills.

"Eight blocks from our restaurant, there are people who don't eat for days on end and, when they do, it's a bag of Doritos. This is a problem. We need to do something about this," Benjamin said. "There are a lot of things that need fixing. This is our slice of it."

For Garces, whose foundation focuses on the city's immigrant community - offering English classes, health fairs and other services - helping immigrants is fitting, as many restaurant workers are new to this country. In the English classes, students learn the language as well as proper restaurant sanitation needs and how to break down food costs.

"I can see the students and hear their progress, how we're changing lives one person at a time, one recipe at a time," Garces said.

For five years, Rouge owner Wasserman has organized the Philadelphia Burger Brawl, an event that raises money for the city's public schools. The competition, he said, "is a bunch of my restaurant friends coming together and making burgers." His personal out-of-pocket cost is minimal. It's his time that has made a difference: The event has grown from a small gathering of 15 chefs feeding 300 people at an elementary school playground to 50 chefs and 3,000 people gathering at Xfinity Live! entertainment center. The 2014 brawl raised $150,000 for the schools.

"People lean on their restaurants for help because society has centralized itself around food and eating," Wasserman said. "It's how restaurants have become more central to charitable organizations."

Restaurants want to help improve the town in which they live and work. Wasserman said. They care.

"Unless you have blinders on, you know what's happening in the Philadelphia school district. We're underfunded and without the endeavors of the community, we're going to be in deep trouble with our children. And whether it's your child, your neighbor's child or a child living in a different zip code, I refuse to let that happen on our watch."