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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM
A petition is circulating to keep the doors open at Mission Social Hall and Cafe.
A customer of Mission Social Hall and Cafe, the food vendor at the Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives, is circulating a petition to keep the cafe’s doors open. It is slated to close Dec. 14 due to an increase in operating costs.
Joshua Laguana, a Kaimuki resident who works several blocks away, says he visits the cafe regularly with friends and family, and even has a farmer friend who takes his food there.
Much of the higher cost is due to an increase in the cafe’s share of property taxes. Laguana’s petition, however, refers to a rent increase and urges the Mission Houses board of directors to keep rent affordable for the cafe.
“Over the last two years, this cafe has sustained hundreds, if not thousands of people in the area of South + King which is a food desert for affordable, healthy options,” the petition states. “The cafe is helping local farmers bring their produce to market, making Hawaii more food solvent. The cafe has sponsored Family Pau Hana night and other meaningful activities for our community. The cafe has breathed life into the Mission House like never before.”
Good for you Mr. Laguana. The community needs to rally around small businesses like these and I hope the petition is successful.
not seeing what a petition can do to sustain the mission houses’ businesses caught up with rising overheads.
it would be better for the cafe to plan to raise its prices enough to support its staff, cover overhead, taxes and product at a level that mission houses as a whole can sustain itself for the next five years.
if there are enough community supporters of the cafe who are willing to pay the increases in prices the cafe will survive. asking the mission houses to absorb rising costs without increased monetary support from the cafe is questionable business advice.