No price, just purpose: Oregon pay-what-you-can restaurant nourishes hundreds

Elise Stevens, more affectionately known as MeeMaw by her community, runs a pay-what-you-can restaurant in Union, Ore., fueled by faith, that feeds hundreds every week. 

"No kid is ever expected to pay, and adults are only expected to pay what they truly can afford," Stevens told Fox News Digital. 

"I have no other source of income… God made it very clear that we were to only do this ministry. This is a ministry more than it is a restaurant," the owner of MeeMaws Hometown Kitchen continued. 

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Elise Stevens, also known as MeeMaw, runs a pay-what-you-can restaurant in Oregon that feeds hundreds every week.  (Instagram: @meemawshometownkitchen)

Stevens, who donates all of her earned social media income back into the eatery, opened the spot last June. Her story and how she arrived here traces back to a highly abusive relationship she escaped nearly 20 years ago.

"I was held hostage for five months while pregnant with my oldest daughter. I gave birth while in captivity and when she was three weeks old, I escaped captivity and I met my husband," MeeMaw said. "I had to take my safety into my own hands, so I jokingly asked a friend if he would be my bodyguard, and just a few weeks later we ended up getting married, and we're still married today."

The mother maintained such positivity through "studying spiritual warfare" to strive every day to "live like Jesus." 

"I was mad at the God that religion taught me about… I stopped being angry. I started forgiving and in doing so, I started to find myself again," she said.

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Elise Steves, also known as MeeMaw, hopes that her restaurant can be expanded to continue to feed people in need across the United States.  (Instagram)

In late 2023, Stevens claimed she "vocally heard God" tell her to bake sourdough bread. 

"Within a couple of weeks, I had loaves of sourdough bread coming out of my ears. I made my own starter. I did it all on my own. I was handing sourdough bread out to everybody in my town, just giving it away. And then I started selling bagels out of my home, then I started making dinner for my Bible study that I was hosting," she told Fox News Digital.

Lasr April, Stevens said that God again told her to open a restaurant, an idea her husband Derek initially shot down, reminding her that they had "no money." 

"God will provide," MeeMaw replied. 

The food spot owner claims that a woman in their community handed her a $5,000 check, and that she opened the restaurant within a month. 

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Elise Stevens and her family have been running the pay-what-you-can eatery in Union, OR., since June 2024. (Instagram: @)

Stevens, who says she cooks 30 to 80 meals a day for children a day at no cost to them, is often asked how her eatery gets funded to continue to feed so many people. 

"I make an income off of social media. I make [an] income off telling my story to different outlets, different areas, and any form of money that I make off of my story gets donated back to my restaurant," she said. "We're also funded by donations from people all over the United States."

Stevens added, "I don't do this for the fame, I literally give God all the glory. This is God's restaurant, this is God's path, and God's led me here, and this is what I do for Him." 

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