Welcome to "The Table"
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Need a meeting space? The Table may be rented by the hour from 7:00a.m. until 10:00 a.m. or anytime after 4:00 p.m. Contact 612-339-3920 |
Mission
Saint Martin’s Table is a vegetarian restaurant that also offers a selection of fair trade items, goods from local artists and books that reflect the values of the Community of Saint Martin.
Our mission is to serve healthful food in an atmosphere of hospitality, while promoting good stewardship of the earth. We encourage social change through good conversation and a variety of educational programs.
Our menu, which changes daily, is based on recipes from around the world. We strive to use organic food from small farms and local businesses. Volunteer servers’ tips are donated to local and global hunger issues.
The Table is owned and managed by the Community of Saint Martin.
We welcome everyone.
Our Purpose
St. Martin's Table is an outreach ministry of the Community of St. Martin. It is a bookstore and restaurant open to the general public. St. Martin's Table strives to be a center for peacemaking and justice seeking. This focus springs from the Community's faith, centered in the life and teachings of Jesus, and so we seek to provide hospitality to all people in their journeys toward peace, justice and wholeness. To describe the Table, we use words Books, Food and Conversation.
The resources in the bookstore are chosen to reflect the values of the Community and staff -- values such as inclusiveness, nonviolence, justice and intentional care of creation.
Fair Trade
This year, St. Martin’s Table has remodeled and reorganized to offer more fair trade products in the bookstore. Come and see beautiful handmade table runners and napkins, candle holders, jewelry and seasonal items from around the world, plus fair trade coffee beans and chocolate. Fair trade is a system of exchange that seeks to create greater equity and partnership in the international trading system by:
- Providing fair wages in the local context
- Supporting safe, healthy, and participatory workplaces
- Supplying financial and technical support to build capacity
- Promoting environmental sustainability
- Respecting cultural identity
- Offering public accountability and transparency
- Building direct and long-term relationships
- Educating consumers
Fair trade is a holistic approach to trade that aims to alter the ways in which commerce is conducted, so that trade can empower the poorest of the poor. Fair Trade Organizations seek to create sustainable and positive change in developing and developed countries.
Our Food
The food served is a celebration of God's gifts to us. To that end, St. Martin's Table serves vegetarian meals with and emphasis on locally grown and organic food. Volunteer servers not only contribute their time, but also contribute their tips to programs that alleviate hunger in the global community.
Conversation takes place not only around the table at noon, but also during programs centered on peacemaking, justice issues and community-building through the arts. St. Martin's Table is also available for study, worship, fellowship and special events for the wider community.
St. Martin's Table strives to be fiscally sound and to be a good steward of all resources, especially as they relate to the long-term vitality of the Table. As an alternative business, it is our priority to model a more just way to live and have that reflected in the relationships we cultivate. The Table strives to be a place of peace where creative visions for a world of justice are welcomed and nurtured.
History
St. Martin's Table was founded in December 1984. St. Martin's Table still upholds the initial vision of creating an alternative business that emphasizes people, peace and the ideal of living simply. Every year, more than 25,000 individuals come to St. Martin's Table to buy books, cards, eat lunch, or volunteers. As a result, more than $660,000 from lunchtime tips to volunteer servers has been given to hunger causes locally, nationally and around the world.
The Table rents its space from Trinity Lutheran Congregation, whose members have encouraged the Table's activities from the start. In addition, countless volunteer hours and two grants from church organizations have helped to create the space as it now exists.
Our Name
The restaurant/bookstore, like the ecumenical community, was named for five Martins who have been models of change, truth and resistance in the Christian faith:
- Martin Luther, the 16th century reformer who taught the theology of the cross
- Martin Luther King, Jr., for his leadership in nonviolent protest to end racism and injustice
- Martin of Tours, a fourth century Roman soldier turned pacifist
- Martin de Porres, a Spanish-Indian healer who served the poor of Peru in the 1600s
- Martin Niemoeller, a German pastor imprisoned for his nonviolent resistance to the Nazis during World War II
For more information, call us at: 612-339-3920 or email us at: smt@communityofstmartin.org