Fifteen U.S. restaurants just received $10,000 each to expand their work against hunger. Toast announced its 2026 Changemakers on November 10, awarding $150,000 in total to restaurant owners who bring the same drive that gets them through a Friday rush to the food insecurity they see in their own neighborhoods.
Toast CEO Aman Narang pointed to the range of the work, from stocking community fridges to running pay-what-you-can tables to cooking for cities after storms. "We're proud to support that work," he said.
The news arrives as the entrepreneurship community prepares for Global Entrepreneurship Week. GEN reviewed applications alongside Toast and Hello Alice, and this is the second year we are celebrating the program with Toast, a long-term GEN partner.
Restaurants are community infrastructure
When a family runs short, a school program lacks funding or a storm cuts off a neighborhood, restaurants turn on the burners. They do it quietly, often in ways their paying guests never see.
Many of this year's Changemakers started long before any grant existed. Rosetta's Kitchen in Asheville has offered its pay-what-you-can Everybody Eats Plate since 2002. Soul & Smoke in Evanston reports more than 350,000 meals provided since 2020. These owners spotted a problem close to home and built a solution from what they already had: a kitchen, a crew and a base of customers who trust them.
Who the 2026 Changemakers are
The cohort spans 11 states and includes a Chicago brunch spot, a Baton Rouge food truck, a Phoenix bookstore cafe and a Michigan brewery. Their models differ, but each one is built on the same idea: food should reach people without a barrier at the door.
- Pay-what-you-can and pay-it-forward. L'Oca d'Oro in Austin hosts weekly Pay What You Will dinners. Gold Lion Community Cafe in Richmond serves roughly 400 free meals a month through its Duke's Tab program, with no paperwork.
- Community fridges and free meals. Soul & Smoke keeps a free fridge stocked 24/7 and prepares about 500 meals a week for nonprofit partners. Smack Dab in Chicago runs a daily Mutual Aid Meal, and TwoGuys Brewing in Michigan reports 10,000+ free meals since November 2025.
- Food recovery. Todo Un Poco in Elk Grove, California, works with Abound Food Care and the California Food Access Alliance and reports more than 15,000 pounds of food recovered and 15,000 meals delivered.
- Disaster response. Tre's Street Kitchen in Baton Rouge brings hot meals when hurricanes and winter storms cut off food access. Mehfil in Asheville stepped up after Hurricane Helene, and J's Breakfast Club in Gary, Indiana, helped feed nearly 3,500 people after a derecho alongside World Central Kitchen and the Red Cross.
- Schools and families. Collective Fare in Brooklyn delivers food, recipes and cooking equipment to families at about 15 public schools. Grassrootz Books & Cafe in Phoenix pairs community breakfasts with a family reading initiative and is moving from monthly to weekly. Heavenly Crust Pizza in Texas gives hardship families a night at the table through its Family Dinner on Us cards.
Le Sud Mediterranean Kitchen in Chicago, which donates a portion of participating sales to local nonprofits, and Mr. Everything Cafe in Atlanta, which feeds about 120 young men in a mentoring program twice a month, complete the list. Results are self-reported by recipients.
How the program works
The Toast Changemakers Program is part of Toast's $5 million, five-year global commitment to combating food insecurity. Applications were open to all eligible U.S. restaurants, including those that do not use Toast, and more than 400 applied this year.
Recipients were chosen through two rounds of review by panelists from Toast, Hello Alice and GEN. Panelists looked at each restaurant's track record, the feasibility and expected impact of its plan, the creativity of its approach and how it measures results.
All 15 will use the grants to expand programs already running: buying ingredients and packaging, adding community meal events and bringing on more local partners. Toast, Hello Alice and GEN will check in with recipients at three and six months to track meals provided, pounds of food donated and people served. In a six-month survey of the 2025 cohort, a majority of grantees said the funds increased the number of meals or people served.
Why this matters for Global Entrepreneurship Week
Global Entrepreneurship Week celebrates people who see a problem and build something to solve it. The Changemakers fit that description without needing a startup label. They run small businesses with thin margins and busy dining rooms, and they still find room in the schedule to feed the people around them.
Two details in the program stand out to us. First, the selection criteria asked how each restaurant measures results, not only what it hopes to do. Tracking meals served, food donated and people reached is how a good idea earns the next round of support. Second, the program is built to last: five years, repeat check-ins and a cohort that grows each year.
Toast has been a long-term partner of GEN, and this is the second year we are celebrating the Changemakers together. We are glad to put these 15 founders in front of the GEW community.
Learn more
Read Toast's full announcement and meet all 15 recipients: Toast Names Its 2026 Changemakers, Awarding $150,000 to Restaurants Fighting Hunger.