Restaurants can help Fight Hunger!

Take it from some folks who know…

Nocturne co-owner Scott Mattson with The Preservery Foundation co-founder Obe Ariss, showing off his new key to the kitchen.

The first time I met Nicole Mattson, in the winter of 2015, we were attending an event hosted by Women Who Startup Denver. Obe and I had just finished writing our business plan for our restaurant, The Preservery, and were hunting for a space. Nicole and her husband and business partner, Scott Mattson, were already in the build-out phase of their restaurant and jazz club, Nocturne, and just a few months away from opening. All I knew, at the time, was that she was another lady opening a restaurant and I wanted to know her! So, I introduced myself, we made a coffee date, and pretty soon we all became friends, business neighbors and trusted colleagues.

Now, almost eight years after that chance meeting, we have formed an official partnership with Nicole, Scott and Chef Dustin Beckner, Nocturne’s Culinary Director. Dustin and I happen to go way back, too. He was the sous chef at the same restaurant in Boulder, in 2007, where I got my very first line cook position, and we worked together again, several years later, at Marczyk Fine Foods before we ended up at our respective restaurants in Five Points.

From left: Obe Ariss, Whitney Ariss, Dustin Beckner, Scott Mattson & Nicole Mattson standing in front of Nocturne

Obe and I had always known that we wanted to partner with restaurants in our hunger relief efforts, knowing firsthand how uniquely suited they are to doing this work. We had a short list of folks we planned to reach out to as soon as The Preservery Foundation became official and of course our friends at Nocturne were on that list, but even before we had officially closed our doors at The Preservery, they reached out to us first. Having followed along with our transition from running a restaurant to starting a hunger relief nonprofit, they wanted to know how they could help.

And so, a partnership was born. We needed kitchen space and they have a kitchen! When Nocturne isn’t bustling full of happy guests and lively jazz, they are closed on Mondays & Tuesdays, so they are able to offer up their space to us on a weekly basis for meal production and packaging, before we deliver the meals directly to folks in need around Metro Denver. They are supporting our efforts to fight hunger and we are able to do the work we want to do without the huge expense of renting a commercial kitchen.

Our first round of Giving Meals cooked in the Nocturne kitchen! Every one of our meals is delivered hot and has a balance of starch, vegetables, protein and fat to optimize satiation and nutrition.

Not only that, but Nocturne is also adding an option to contribute to our Giving Meals program for their guests, much like we used to do at The Preservery! It’s an easy and accessible way to enable folks to contribute to hunger relief and help the most disenfranchised people in their community. All you have to do is select the “Gift a meal to someone in need” option when you make a reservation to dine at Nocturne.

This journey of ours has had a lot of ups and downs. It was so hard to let go of the restaurant that we put 7 years of actual blood, sweat and tears into, and it was scary to embark on an entirely new endeavor. I think the thing that has kept us going the most, and that has lifted our spirits in times of turmoil, is that folks like Nicole, Scott and Dustin have shown up for us. We have built a strong, resilient and loving community over the years and the fact that the good folks at Nocturne are willing to partner with us is helping to push us forward with the monumental task of putting a dent in food insecurity.

The truth is that none of this work is possible without community. We can do so much more together. But it also isn’t lost on us that this effort is often controversial. It takes boldness and bravery to be willing to say, with the full force of your professional reputation, that folks experiencing homelessness deserve a hot meal. We are so proud to take this stance together and work with Nicole, Scott and Dustin in our mission to build community through food.