Her Restaurant Breaks All the Rules, and Thrives

While Cerreta says she makes less money now than she did when she owned her acupuncture business, she lives comfortably. Because of her travel and charitable work, people sometimes think she has a trust fund. She doesn’t. What she does have is a fulfilling and rich lifestyle. In her free time, she gardens and works on crafts projects (using donated yarn to crochet baby blankets that are sold at the kitchen). She takes long walks in the park with Gertrude, the mutt that she found starving on the streets of Bangalore, India. She lives in a modest, artsy-looking studio apartment above the restaurant, and practices yoga and meditates. She talks every day with her 84-year-old mother, who lives in Canton, Ohio.

Despite Cerreta’s success with One World Everybody Eats, the nonprofit has had its share of growing pains. Last October, after a series of bookkeeping and accountability snafus plunged the organization into debt, the board of directors fired the longtime general manager, and three angry staffers staged a highly publicized walkout. Cerreta promptly went to work in the kitchen herself until the board hired new staff. The organization is solvent once again.

The same month, Cerreta organized a one-day pay-what-you-want campaign in more than 20 local restaurants, with a portion of their profits going to hunger-related charities. The project, part of a World Food Day initiative, raised around $3,350, and, more important, Mayor Becker says, it also raised people’s consciousness about food waste. So, despite some snarky press, personnel difficulties and Rush Limbaugh’s jabs, Cerreta’s local influence is on the rise. “She borders on being a holy person,” Becker says. “She has an incredible heart and a creative mind, and she shares that strength with the community.”

Cerreta also has a dream big enough to fill the rest of her life. “If we could eliminate waste in restaurants, agriculture, grocery stores and wherever food is served or harvested,” she says, “I believe we would have enough food to feed the world.”

Jennifer Margulis is a travel and culture writer who lives in Ashland, Oregon.