Here’s why your favorite Wichita restaurant owners are wearing pink construction hats
Wichita restaurants are approached every day, often multiple times a day, by people seeking donations.
They’re asking for gift cards and gift baskets for live auctions. They’re asking for food or drink donations for fundraising events. Over time, it starts to add up — and the restaurant owners often have no idea if their donations brought in any money or actually did any good.
It frustrates Jennifer Ray, the owner of The Monarch, a popular restaurant and bar at 573 W. Douglas, and it has for years. But recently, she was hit with an idea.
What if restaurant owners in Wichita banded together and proactively came up with a cohesive way to give back to the community? What if it was a project that they designed and they controlled — one where they and their employees could actually see real results of their efforts?
Enter Service for Change, a new initiative that is a collaboration between 16 restaurants, breweries and spirit brands in Wichita. It’s the reason you’re suddenly seeing photos of local restaurant owners wearing pink construction hats all over social media.
The group, led by Ray, has committed to an ambitious project. Over the course of the next year, they’ll all work together to try and raise $100,000 — the cost of a new home for Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit that builds affordable housing. The businesses hope to have the amount raised in a year, and they’ll donate it to the organization.
To reach their goal, they plan to launch individual and group initiatives that will raise the money. Examples of possible projects include wine and beer dinners, live music events, or special cocktails where some of the proceeds go toward the project.
Among the high-profile restaurants that are participating: HomeGrown, Public at the Brickyard, Nortons Brewing Company, Picasso’s Pizzeria, Central Standard Brewing, The Belmont, The Kitchen, Reverie Coffee Roasters and more.
“I think I’m not alone when I say that a lot of times, we’re simply answering the call when people ask and probably not putting a lot of thought into what we’re doing,” Ray said. “We’re just trying to be supportive. And so it started a conversion about what would happen if we all worked together to try to really do a huge thing. What could we accomplish if we all put our heads together?”
Building a plan
Ray said she got the idea after participating last year in Leadership Wichita. During one seminar, the group met with nonprofit leaders. She asked some of them for advice on how restaurants — which are often the first businesses people think of when seeking contributions — could use their resources more efficiently and still help the community. That same day, she saw Danielle Johnson, the executive director for Habitat for Humanity, speak on a panel about homelessness and the need for sustainable housing.
In the days following, Ray said, it all came together in her mind, and she began contacting her friends in the restaurant industry.
One of them was Brooke Russell, co-owner of Public at the Brickyard. She’s also flooded with requests for donations, she said, estimating that most restaurants on the list donate between $3,000 and $10,000 worth of gift cards, products and services to various fundraisers each year.
“These add up over time,” Russell said. “And the margins are slim with restaurants.”
Russell said she liked the idea of participating in a project that would have tangible results.
“Sometimes, when you’re partnering with lots of different organizations, it can be difficult because you don’t see the end result,” Russell said. “We wanted to try something different to where our team could realize the impact.”
Local charities who rely on restaurant donations shouldn’t panic, both Russell and Ray said. They both plan to continue working with organizations with whom they’ve developed relationships.
But Ray said that she’ll cut back on the number of donations she makes, and she’s already removed the donation request form that used to be on her website. Last year alone, The Monarch got more than 200 requests for monetary, in-kind, food or gift card donations, she said, and even some for-profit businesses ask restaurants for donations.
“It’s hard when you can’t help everyone,” she said. “I want to be able to uplift the people doing the work, but it’s impossible and it feels overwhelming. There’s so much restaurants are asked for all the time, and so I think we just wanted to see if we could be a little more intentional.”
Getting started
Although Habitat for Humanity can’t add a specific house to its list of builds just for the Service for Change project, the money that Service for Change plans to raise is enough to cover the cost of one of the already planned builds, and the members of the group intend to get together and volunteer for a build day at some point.
Any other business that wants to be a part of the project can still join in, Ray said: The list doesn’t have to stop with 16 participants.
Russell said that organizers hope that the project can continue, year after year, with different charities benefiting each time.
“So far, it’s been really fun to get together and come up with ideas,” she said. “I think our knowledge of the industry rubs off on each other, and we’re using it as a time to improve our businesses as well.”
The Service For Change project will officially launch at an event that starts at noon May 4 at Central Standard Brewing, 156 Greenwood.
The brewery will be putting on its annual Lunacorn beer release event, and the first 100 people who donate $25 or more to Habitat for Humanity will get a color-changing Lunacorn glass to keep. Lunacorn t-shirts also will be sold, and 20% of the proceeds from Lunacorn beer and merchandise sales will go to the fundraising pot.
The Service for Change website will list the different fundraising projects going on at each of the participating businesses. Ray said the group is giving itself until April of 2025 to raise the $100,000.
