29A VENTURE CONCEPT No. 2

1)  My conceot is to have a community-centered restaurant that takes a portion of each sale and adds it to a fund that will be used to periodically host free meals to the community, hopefully partnering with the city.  My hope is that free meals at scenic locations in the town will encourage citizens of the community to come and connect in a way that they usually do not.  Both those in need and in plenty are welcome at the meals.

2) I got both positive and negative feedback.  The negative feedback was regarding the potential for the homeless population to flock to the events and discourage others from coming.  This is exactly the problem I want to combat through this program.  I understand that a significant portion of the homeless population is dangerous and or offputting.  For those that are dangerous, they obviously will not be allowed into the events.  However, I feel that the homeless population is largely forgotten and or ignored by the rest of us, and that people do not really care about the individual stories and circumstances of those without a home.  They are a "junkies" or "crazies" in a lot of people's eyes.  My hope is that if these people from all different walks of life can connect over shared meals, people will stop seeing everything so much as political issues and more as human issues.

3)  I changed my venture concept slightly to account for the fact that certain people may have to be prevented from entering in order to avoid conflict with the others, but that is a bridge I will cross if and when I get there.

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