Heart-n-Soul Community Café Celebrates 10 Years

What began as a small series of pop up meals in Fargo has grown into a nonprofit mobile café serving communities throughout the Fargo Moorhead area. Its food trailer travels to neighborhoods, churches, food pantries, and community events, offering freshly prepared meals under a simple promise: guests may contribute according to their circumstances, and no one has to justify what they can or cannot afford.

At the center of the organization is founder and executive director Leola Daul, whose original idea was shaped by her experience working with children and families experiencing poverty. Daul said she first encountered the community café concept in a magazine while working for Head Start. The idea stayed with her because it combined her understanding that financial circumstances can change quickly and that food has a remarkable ability to bring people together.

"I just love how food brings people together," Daul said.

She envisioned a place where someone could receive a healthy, hearty meal without an application, an income test, or uncomfortable questions. She also believed the Fargo Moorhead community was generous enough to support a model in which some guests paid less, and others paid more.

A Different Way to Pay

Heart-n-Soul operates under a "pay what you can" model, although the organization has refined the way it explains that system over the years.

Early cafés included a suggested donation amount. Today, guests who can afford to contribute are encouraged to pay what they would normally spend on lunch or supper. That amount naturally differs from person to person. Someone accustomed to buying lunch at a convenience store may contribute one amount, while someone who regularly eats at a full service restaurant may give more.

Guests can pay what they can afford, contribute the typical price of a meal, pay extra to help feed another person, or volunteer in exchange for food. The café also works with community partners that distribute meal tokens to guests experiencing food insecurity. Regardless of the method, guests are welcomed without being asked to prove that they need assistance.

The model depends on participation from people at many income levels. Heart-n-Soul is not intended only for people who cannot pay. Guests who can cover the cost of their meals, or pay forward the cost of another meal, are an important part of keeping the café accessible.

Daul said just over 78 percent of the café's guests in 2025 paid what they could or were unable to pay. Contributions can vary widely. One guest may give a dollar or even some loose change, while another may contribute twenty dollars or more.

Daul said every contribution matters because each guest becomes part of the café's work.

From an Idea to the First Café

The road to Heart-n-Soul's first meal began several years before the organization officially opened. Daul started discussing the idea with community members around 2013. Although she had restaurant and cooking experience, she had never managed a café, so she began attending meetings and looking for people who could help her understand the business.

A visit to a local chefs' association meeting introduced her to Tracy Walvatne, then the owner of Josie's Corner Café. Because the restaurant was closed on Sundays, Walvatne offered its kitchen and dining area to the developing organization.

Heart-n-Soul held its first café at Josie's Corner on June 12, 2016. North Dakota State University dietetics students prepared the food, while Daul's friends and other community volunteers served the meal.

Additional partnerships followed. Square One Kitchens offered another place to operate, and Heart-n-Soul organized pop up cafés in churches, educational facilities, farmers markets, and other underused spaces throughout Fargo Moorhead. Rather than paying for a full time restaurant, the organization worked with partners willing to donate kitchens and gathering areas when those spaces were not being used.

Those partnerships made it possible for the café to grow carefully. Local farmers donated produce, including fruits and vegetables that tasted good but might not have met a grocery store's appearance standards. Volunteers performed much of the work, and early grants helped the organization continue operating.

Daul also contributed some of her personal savings to keep the project moving forward.

"It is a community café because a lot of people have given their time, their assets, their produce and their talents," she said.

A Pandemic Forces a Change

Before 2020, Heart-n-Soul's mission centered on gathering people indoors for a shared meal. The arrival of COVID-19 made that central part of the organization's work impossible.

Daul recalled that the café held its final indoor meal in early March 2020. Because volunteers and guests had different health circumstances, the organization did not want to risk exposing someone to the virus.

The gatherings stopped, but the need for food did not.

Heart-n-Soul responded by starting a sack lunch program. Volunteers gathered on Fridays to prepare more than 500 lunches at a time, which were then distributed to community members. Many recipients were older adults or people who were limiting travel and social contact. Each lunch included a greeting card, adding a small personal connection during an isolating period.

The sack lunch program continued for more than five years before ending in December 2025. Heart-n-Soul then decided to concentrate more of its resources on hot meals and its mobile café. Over its first decade, the organization served more than 35,000 café meals and 55,000 sack lunches in the Fargo Moorhead region.

Taking the Café to the Community

A food trailer was never included in Heart-n-Soul's original strategic plan. During the pandemic, however, it became a practical answer to several problems at once.

People were discouraged from gathering indoors, but outdoor gatherings were still possible. A trailer would allow Heart-n-Soul to prepare and distribute hot food while giving guests the option to eat outside. When a trailer became available, an anonymous donor helped the organization purchase it. The Mobile Café began operating in 2021.

The trailer also addressed a problem Heart-n-Soul had identified before the pandemic. A 2017 community assessment found that transportation prevented some people from attending the organization's pop up meals. Even an affordable meal provides little help when the person who needs it has no reliable way to reach the serving location.

With the trailer, Heart-n-Soul could go to the guests instead.

"It's one of the best things that we ever did, just because we can move around our community and go where the people are at," Daul said.

Heart-n-Soul currently prepares food and stores equipment at First Presbyterian Church in Fargo. The church provides that space as an in kind contribution, allowing the nonprofit to operate without the monthly rent faced by a traditional restaurant.

Serving Food Worth Looking Forward To

Affordability is not the café's only priority. Daul emphasizes that every guest should receive a complete, enjoyable meal rather than food that feels like an afterthought.

Heart-n-Soul uses fresh and locally produced ingredients whenever possible. Meals generally include a main dish, sides, and dessert. The menu combines familiar comfort food with dishes that some guests may be trying for the first time.

One of the most popular choices is the harvest bowl. Kitchen manager Joe Swegarden prepares it with locally produced grains, fresh vegetables, greens, tahini, and homemade hummus made with white beans. Depending on the meal, the vegetables may be roasted, pickled, or served raw.

The café's burritos are also popular, particularly its sweet potato and beef and bean varieties. Other menus have included sloppy joes, curries, and meals prepared by visiting guest chefs. Daul said she particularly enjoys watching someone cautiously approach an unfamiliar dish, taste it, and discover a new favorite.

That sense of discovery is part of the café's mission. Guests are not merely being handed food, they are being invited to experience a thoughtfully prepared meal.

Daul has also learned alongside them. She said she never cared for peppers before working with Swegarden, who regularly cooks with several varieties. She eventually realized that the problem was not necessarily the peppers, she may simply have been preparing them the wrong way.

Built by More Than One Person

Heart-n-Soul's history is marked by people stepping forward at important moments.

When Daul needed a location for the first café, Walvatne offered Josie's Corner. When the organization needed additional kitchen space, other restaurants, churches, and community organizations responded. When the pandemic made the original model unworkable, volunteers helped launch the lunch program. When a trailer became available, an anonymous donor made its purchase possible.

Daul said the experience has taught her that many people want to help but may be waiting for someone to ask.

The organization continues to seek volunteers, guest chefs, donated produce, and sponsors for Mobile Café meals. A business can help fund a café, provide employees to volunteer at the meal, or combine financial support with hands on service. Heart-n-Soul also encourages community members to support the mission by simply visiting the trailer, purchasing a meal, and paying it forward when they are able.

The official café schedule is published on the organization's website and social media pages, with Facebook serving as one of the primary ways guests learn where the trailer will be.

Looking Toward the Next 10 Years

Heart-n-Soul celebrated its tenth anniversary in June 2026, marking a decade since that first Sunday meal at Josie's Corner. The milestone reflected how far the organization had traveled, from occasional pop up gatherings to a mobile nonprofit that has served tens of thousands of meals.

Daul is already considering what the next chapter could look like. Heart-n-Soul values its partnership with First Presbyterian Church, but Daul said the organization would eventually like a permanent location of its own. The food trailer would continue traveling around Fargo Moorhead, while the fixed location would provide a consistent gathering place. Future goals also include increasing staff capacity, involving more volunteers, and developing additional community partnerships.

For Daul, the most rewarding part of the journey has been watching the model work. She described moments when she can step away from operating the trailer, sit down with a meal, and watch volunteers, guests, and community partners interact without her directing every detail.

In those moments, the café becomes exactly what she hoped it could be: people with different backgrounds and circumstances gathering around food, each contributing in a way that works for them.

There were times during the organization's early years when Daul wondered what she had taken on. Ten years later, she said she has no regrets.

"I think it's what I'm supposed to be doing," she said.

Heart-n-Soul's success suggests that a café does not need fixed prices to have value, and it does not need permanent walls to create belonging. Sometimes a community can be built from a borrowed kitchen, a donated trailer, a group of willing volunteers, and the belief that everyone deserves a place at the table.

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What to Know About Heart-n-Soul Community Café

How does Heart-n-Soul's pay what you can model work?
Guests contribute according to what they can afford, whether that means paying the typical cost of a meal, paying extra to help feed someone else, volunteering in exchange for food, or paying nothing at all. No one is asked to prove financial need.

Where can I find the Heart-n-Soul food trailer?
The café's schedule is published on its website and social media pages, with Facebook serving as one of the primary ways guests learn where the trailer will be each week.

How can I support Heart-n-Soul Community Café?
Community members can volunteer, donate produce, sponsor a Mobile Café meal, or simply visit the trailer, purchase a meal, and pay it forward when they're able. Businesses can also combine financial support with hands on volunteer service.

How long has Heart-n-Soul been serving Fargo-Moorhead?
Heart-n-Soul celebrated its tenth anniversary in June 2026, marking a decade since its first meal at Josie's Corner Café on June 12, 2016. Over that decade, the organization has served more than 35,000 café meals and 55,000 sack lunches.