The GraceFull Story
The Dream
Heather, co-founder of GraceFull, grew up in rural Nebraska where a staple in life was gathering with family over food. These childhood memories of sharing meals with her community of family, friends and neighbors were the earliest roots of GraceFull, although Heather didn’t know it at the time. After high school she left the farm to start building her own story – studying business in college, careers in accounting and teaching, marriage and a family. In 2012, Heather, Troy and family moved to Uganda for ten months of serving and learning. It was a pivotal time and again the Greenwoods learned about the power of food in building community. One of their most impactful learnings from this experience was the first hand knowledge that most of the world survives on one good meal a day.
The Plan
After moving back to the States, Heather started to pursue her dream of a cafe where she could reflect her roots, invest in her own community, and put into daily practice what the beautiful people of Uganda had taught her family. The idea of a cafe where people could gather as community to eat one good meal a day regardless of their ability to pay started to take shape. The pieces of the puzzle were all starting to fit — from her childhood on the farm, to her years in the business world, followed by years of building relationships in the classroom, and then cultivating a heart for food ministry in the College View area locally and then abroad in Africa. She worked on her business plan for two years while working at Snooze and learning from two local community cafes, SAME Cafe and Cafe 180. Heather’s business background merged with her non profit heart which resulted in the unique idea of a for profit Cafe and a partner non-profit Foundation that invested in the Littleton community. This is the story of GraceFull.
The Mission
Our mission, vision and values guide every decision, every day at GraceFull.
Vision: to promote a healthier, stronger, more connected community
Mission: to provide a home in the Littleton community where people of all backgrounds can gather, eat well, and be inspired to give back.
Our Values, we will…
- Invite, welcome and love all people
- Show you the beauty in simplicity
- Focus on food that is friendly to your own kitchen
- Use what we have and limit the excess
- Give back often and with joy
The Start
It was very important to us for GraceFull to feel like home to everyone that would walk in our doors. In April of 2015 we found our home in Historic Downtown Littleton. It was previously a tea shop and needed some work to make it into the community space we envisioned. After lots of work, sweat, and some tears, we were finally ready to welcome guests into our dream for the community. On May 24th, 2016 GraceFull opened its doors and in many ways the journey was only just beginning.
Over the first year we started to see our Grace In Action meals grow, starting at a couple of meals per day, then growing to 11 and 19 per day within the first 18 months. We were meeting hundreds of amazing people in our community that were investing in our daily volunteer program. We also launched another Foundation program – Community Breakfast. Our first community breakfast was sponsored by a large technology company in December of 2017. This program was soon to become one of our favorite days each month, as each person has the exact same expectation when they visit GraceFull for community breakfast— they pay nothing and they can enjoy anything off our menu.
In our first two years, we realized just how much we had to learn in running both a for profit cafe and non-profit foundation, how to build healthy community with loving boundaries, and had daily reminders to remain anchored in our original vision, mission, and values.
The Growth
Near the end of our second year we realized that daily tips and donations at the cafe register would not be able to solely sustain the Foundation’s Grace In Action meals program. GraceFull Foundation’s board saw the need to begin a development campaign to be able to sustain funding our mission. In this process we felt it very important to remain grounded in our heart for relationships. One primary tool for developing new relationships is our invitation to attend a Coffee Tour that are led by one of our Foundation Board Members. We hope that these tours are a chance to learn more about our investment in the Littleton community a meal at a time as well as a catalyst for brainstorming ways for us to partner in mission together, even something as simple as sharing meals together in our space.
The more we do this work, the more we understand how much work there is to do. Our hope is that each person has an opportunity to reflect on their unique giftings and how they can be offered to make our community better. Around year three of GraceFull’s journey, our Grace in Action meals peaked and remain steady at 50-60 per day out of our 100 – 110 total meals served daily.
The Now
2020 brought challenges that none of us would have expected. We began the year excited about campaigning for growth in our cafe – encouraging more guest traffic. We were also challenged by local partners in our community to learn more about food insecurity and all its faces, ready to take on the burden of finding new ways to serve individuals challenged by the fear of not knowing where their next meal will come from. All too soon, we were faced with the challenges of operating during a pandemic and the desire to continue to serve our vulnerable guests in a time many restaurants and businesses were closing their doors.
We learned how to reinvent ourselves and gave our community a variety of ways to support our mission. As always, they stepped up in a fantastic way! Our staple food – breakfast burrito – came in handy as the perfect to-go item!
We also found our community to be very generous in donating to our foundation to continue to allow us to serve our Grace In Action meals to those in need. Due to COVID, we had to cancel our annual fundraiser, but we found that our foundation remained in a healthy place, allowing us to continue to serve the Littleton community. We are so grateful.
Enjoy the video below of this unique season for us!
2021 will bring new challenges but we are always confident about the beauty amidst those challenges.
We continue to invite and welcome people into our community, and love them just the way they are — one meal at a time. While there are many ups and downs to this journey, the journey is more than worthwhile. It is a privilege. We’re so thankful for your journeying with us.
GraceFull Cafe
GraceFull Cafe is a community and a cafe that serves breakfast and lunch to all Tuesday – Saturday 7a to 2p. Through partnership with GraceFull Foundation, the cafe offers meals to anyone regardless of their ability pay.
Ben
CookDoug
Front of House Community CoordinatorI live to be outside doing all the things I love with the people I love! I’m so excited to be doing some work to help build a better community in the place where I’ve grown up!
Grace
BaristaHeather
Cafe Co-Owner, GraceFull Foundation FounderHeather has a diverse background first as a CPA and then as a high school business teacher, but she realized over the past decade that her true passion is bringing people together over food. Her purpose in opening GraceFull is to love people well through food and invest in the local community by connecting people to new outlets for serving each other and opportunities to give back.
Isabelle
Front of House Community CoordinatorIsabelle was born and raised here in Littleton. She has always loved to volunteer and get to know the different people around the community. As an avid reader, she loves to hear different stories and to connect with the GraceFull family.
James
Head ChefJames began his culinary adventures at a young age, helping at his mom’s small cafe in Kentucky. After learning on the line and then attending culinary school in New York, James has had a full tour in his career from fine dining to primal open fire cooking. James has come full circle in his life and as a chef and is passionate about using his gifts to give back to his community. When he’s not in the kitchen, you can find James riding motorcycles.
Megan
Assistant ManagerMegan is a proud wife to Tyler and mom to Ella and Cody. She started her journey with GraceFull as a volunteer in 2018 and instantly fell in love. GraceFull Café has been a special place for Megan and her family over the last few years in times of celebration and as a safe place during life’s challenges. She is honored to be part of the team.
Naomi
Assistant ManagerHi! My name is Naomi, I’m 26 years old and am originally from Canada. As a Christian I believe that Jesus calls me to love and serve others and am so thankful to be able to do that through GraceFull. I love baking, fresh flowers, the ocean and sunrises, most of all I love my family (back home, here in Denver and at GraceFull… oh and my little dachshund, Freya)!
GraceFull Foundation
The GraceFull foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. All tips at the cafe and donations go to supporting the mission and programs of GraceFull Foundation.
Craig Spencer
Board MemberCraig has a passion for serving and living in community and GraceFull’s mission resonated strongly with him from the moment he was introduced to GraceFull around its one year anniversary. He and his wife, Stephanie, have served in various capacities with their church including children’s ministry, mission trips, small groups and mid-size section communities. Craig works for an education nonprofit which focuses on serving under-performing and under-resourced schools, primarily in rural locations across Colorado. Craig & Steph are blessed with two wonderful kids, a great son-in-law and just recently, an extremely happy and cool first grandson!
Julie Hall
Program Manager, Community Development and AdvocacyJulie is married to Rob and has three very busy kiddos! She loves working for GraceFull Foundation, connecting with guests, volunteers and donors. Her passion is community networking and collaborating for the good of the most vulnerable. She oversees community partnerships and advocacy opportunities.
Leah Levin
Volunteer Coordinator, Development and CommunicationsLeah volunteered in the kitchen with GraceFull for five years and then was welcomed to the foundation team to oversee the volunteer program and support development and communications. She lives in Highlands Ranch with her husband Joe and two daughters. She is grateful that GraceFull is a community where all are loved and respected.
Nancy Ryan
Board MemberNancy found GraceFull as the cafe was launched. She lives around the corner and volunteered during the summers when she was teaching in Littleton Public Schools. Now retired, she volunteers often in the GraceFull kitchen and the garden. Growing up in a family that always sat down together for meals led to her involve her kids in meal prep. She and her husband, Kelly, raised three boys and when they come together it is almost always centered around food, family, and friends. Nancy and Kelly are often on the patio enjoying a breakfast burrito and coffee.
Troy Greenwood
Foundation Board President& Cafe Co-OwnerTroy works as a Technology Consultant and spends his Wednesdays at GraceFull Cafe. As an avid reader and self-over-analyzer his occupation as a Technology Consultant and his work with GraceFull and other non-profits allows him to be in both the corporate and non-profit worlds. He strives to continue to show these two worlds and the people in them the unique things they have to offer each other.