The Only Legitimate Question

Before it was the Starfish Café it was called the Bread & Butter Café. Leigh Calhoun Martin thought of it for a functional restaurant that is home to culinary arts training program for homeless people. It came about because America’s Second Harvest approached Union Mission about doing a work training program in the food industry. Savannah Technical College came in as the third partner.

The Employment & Training Center used to be on Congress Street across from Paula Dean’s “Lady & Sons” restaurant. We had acquired that building with funds from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs but it wasn’t a restaurant. So I went to Atlanta to ask if we could sell the building that they had given us money to buy. After a few hours John Bassett agreed so long as we use the new place for homeless people.

So we sold Congress Street and used the money to buy and renovate the Bread & Butter Café which opened with great fanfare. The program has been nationally recognized many times over and immediately generated great publicity and public support.

Then the first crisis occurred. America’s Second Harvest had a change in leadership and the new Director announced they were pulling out of the program and closing the restaurant.

The next day we announced that we had no intentions whatsoever of closing the café. It was a program that works!

Then we were told that America’s Second Harvest had trademarked the name that Leigh had thought up. Leigh worked for Union Mission. They also told us if we didn’t stop using the name that they would sue us.

I was sharing this news with Bill Berry (not the former drummer for R.E.M. but the other one) and his son Micah who were visiting.

“We got to think of a new name,” I explained.

“I can’t believe it’s not Bread & Butter,” Micah deadpanned.

We all busted out laughing.

So the next day Kurt Schmidt of Union Mission climbed on the roof with a can of spray paint and we changed the name. It got a lot of press but it really made the folks at America’s Second Harvest mad.

The Savannah College of Art & Design then got involved and a month long contest was held to think of a new name. The winner got a free lunch weekly for a month. There were over 300 entries and the winner was “The Starfish Café.”

Local artist Sandy Brannen did murals illustrating the story of the little girl who is trying to save a beach full of washed up starfish by throwing them back into the sea. A man tells her that she can’t make a difference because of the number of ones dying in the sand.

“It made a difference to that one,” she tells him. The murals hang in the Café.

So I tell you that to tell you this. Yesterday my dear friend Dedra called me wanting to talk. Might I really be moving to St. Martin?

Maybe. Maybe not. I’ve never been one to be pinned in by other people’s expectations as the above story obviously illustrates.

“We’ll see,” I told her.

A lot of people are telling me what I should be doing these days and I listen and I consider what they are saying or suggesting or demanding. I’m considering right now.

And when we consider we should consider any and every possibility. Why limit ourselves because of what other people think, or rules, or expectations. I think the only legitimate question to ask ourselves is “Why not?”

And whatever it is that we decide to do, for Christ’s sake have fun doing it.