Bush-Backed FEED Charity Now Has a Cafe in Dumbo

Online philanthropic retailer FEED has come offline today with the opening of its first cafe and retail store, The FEED Shop & Cafe. Lauren Bush Lauren — granddaughter and niece, respectively, of Presidents George H.W. and W. Bush — is behind the charity and this store, which sources from City Bakery and La Colombe coffee.

The new brick and mortar shop, which started as an online bag retailer, has partnered with United Nations World Food Programme, the United Nations Children's Fund, and Feeding America. Basically, one meal is donated for each food item and cup of coffee sold, and the numbers go up from there with higher-priced purchases — a bag of coffee, for example, is ten donated meals.

FEED

“Being FEED, with our mission to give food through purchases, it makes so much sense for us to actually serve food as well,” Lauren tells Eater. So she worked with City Bakery to bring their baked goods to Brooklyn, including the cult-favorite pretzel croissant, chocolate zucchini muffins, and more. They also created a custom, medium-roast, organic blend for the cafe with La Colombe. Expect City Bakery-developed, vegetarian grain bowls to follow soon for lunch.

With roots as a fashion brand, the cafe is hyper on-trend. The 17 seats, spread among communal and cafe tables as well as high tops, are surrounded by all the buzzwords: reclaimed wood, exposed brick, and lots of greenery. A ticker very prominently displays the number of meals donated to day (95 million so far).

The cafe-store combination is a growing trend in recent years, with Urban Outfitters opening a restaurant in Brooklyn and cafe in Herald Square. The FEED Shop & Cafe is open Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday until 6 p.m.

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• The FEED Shop & Cafe [Official Site]