Springreens Community Cafe has been around for less than two years, occupying a small corner in the East Lake community. For almost a month now, they have quietly been serving free meals to their neighbors, no questions asked. The restaurant estimates that they have given away 5,000 free hot meals since beginning the program on April 23rd. Meals are available for pickup via drive thru from 6pm-8pm daily.
Springreens is located next to the Atlanta Masjid of al-Islam mosque, and last year they saw their business bolstered as those attending nightly Ramadan worship next door broke their daily fasts by stopping by the restaurant. This year looked a lot different however, as the mosque’s services went online due to Coronavirus. Springreens’s owners had to cut their hours and release some of their staff. Their biggest concern however, was how the community around them would fair throughout this trying time. So, while only opening to the public for takeout service on Fridays through Sundays from noon to 4pm, Springreens opened their free meal program every day, serving as many as 500-600 free meals some evenings.
Springreens is accepting donations in order to fund this program, and generous donors have so far raised over $23,000 to help the restaurant in their mission. You can contribute via their website here!
To read more about the work Springreens is doing, check out this article in the AJC!
Springreens Community Cafe – 566 Fayetteville Road SE, Atlanta, GA 30316