Can we imagine what can be done with a group of committed volunteers? California Fresh Buffet was an example of one such endeavor, established through the power and inspiration of tireless volunteers who spent many service hours giving of themselves, working together cooperatively with a purpose in mind to serve the community.
In February, 2000, California Fresh Buffet opened its doors to the public. The restaurant was owned and managed by the Center for Purposeful Living. It was an experiment in effective human relations, group service, service education, and research. The idea was to see what would happen if the principles and practices, which contributed to the success of the parent organization, were used as the foundation for a retail, customer-service-oriented business—even one as intense and demanding as a restaurant.
California Fresh Buffet (CFB) was an innovative, elegant, buffet-style restaurant in Winston-Salem serving dinner to as many as 3,000 paying customers per week. Only fifteen percent of the restaurant’s employees were paid. The other eighty-five percent were CPAs, attorneys, carpenters, physicians, work-at-home parents, school teachers, nurses, artists, and business owners who volunteered part-time at the CFB.
In May, 2007, CFB was changed to California Fresh Catering, which allowed the opportunity for the successful food business to continue at the same time freeing many volunteer hours to be reinvested into a larger field of services offered to the community. California Fresh Catering continues to donate its profits to the Foundation for Purposeful Living, increasing the Foundation endowment and continuing a unique example of sustainability and service.