Gambling on the conscience of an entire community is quite an undertaking. Winning the bet is an even sweeter feat.

St. Louis Bread Company Cares—formerly a standard café under the same address at 10 South Central Ave. in downtown Clayton—has done just that. Only a few months after the café’s reopening as a nonprofit, one can conclude that the idea of ‘take what you need, pay your fair share’ isn’t going to be burning out anytime soon.

“The idea is catching on,” hospitality and volunteer coordinator Terri Barr said. “More people are reading and hearing about us, and they’re coming in to see how things are. They want to be a part of it.”

And contribute they do—whether in the form of donations or service, or both. Three-quarters of patrons pay at least the suggested donation, the price of the food at a regular Panera. Those who can’t still try to give something, or offer to volunteer instead—an hour of service is equal to one free meal.

“We try to make these people feel like they’re not charity,” Barr said. “They often feel as if they’re taking advantage of the system.”

The café is a popular place for volunteers of all sorts, however. Barr reports a considerable crowd of those eager to give their time and service, including freshman Sarah Casteel, who began volunteering in the summer. Though Casteel had to put her volunteering on hiatus because of the tennis season, she picked it back up when it ended.

“My mom just recommended it to me and I love it,” Casteel said. “I’ve gotten to be good friends with people there, and because the greeters aren’t there on the weekends, I’m going to be hired as one. Right now, I’m working on memorizing the script and FAQ’s. And because I volunteer, I get dinner when I go there.”

On the other end of the spectrum are those who truly do abuse the system—those who can pay but don’t. Though the Cares café suffered a number of abuses in the beginning, the problem has diminished greatly over time.

“You find that if you put a little guilt on them, they begin to feel the responsibility,” Barr said. “I just say, ‘If you continue to take and not give, then we can’t help others who really need this.’”

Casteel agrees.

“There are a lot of people from our school that still abuse the system,” Casteel said. “There’s a group of guys that goes there for lunch every day and they pay a dollar or something. I’m sure the numbers have gone down, because the managers have been keeping people on their radar and they yelled at them.”

However, Casteel has gotten a number of people who abused the system in the past to volunteer since then.

Indeed, one might observe that some degree of social integrity seems to emerge from those who enter the café, though the manner in which it manifests is different for all. In the short time that the experimental nonprofit has been in existence, Barr has experienced it all: those who can’t pay now, but come back later to do so; a customer who tipped a homeless volunteer sweeping the storefront without a second thought; those who come in and simply donate.

Others, including Casteel, also load their cars with the extra bread that the café doesn’t use and give it to those in need.

Though the balance of those who pay and those who can’t is one part of the café, the offshoot product can’t be forgotten.

As was announced from the beginning, the proceeds from the café will go towards an at-risk teen program, which will start at the beginning of next year. The program will train the teens in life skills, and the training will occur in the café itself.

The program will also be partially be run by a partner organization of the Cares café’s choosing, but the name of that partner has not yet been released. In this way, the Cares café is not only sparking community members to help each other—it’s giving back directly to the public. In the meantime, the success of the St. Louis café—and the national attention it is enjoying—is sparking the creation of a couple more, one soon to open in Deerborn, Michigan, and another in Portland, Oregon.

Both Barr and Casteel encourage anyone and everyone to help out—all one needs is a little extra time and spirit to volunteer.

“It’s a wonderful thing to see the response of the public when they realize they can help someone that same day,” Barr said. “This isn’t a gimmick. It’s a true café.”