Welcome to the Crowdsourcing Mornings segment! Every weekday morning, Geek Alabama talks about and features one crowdsourcing project from crowdsourcing sites such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and others. The hope with Crowdsourcing Mornings is to feature and help a project be successful and reach its fundraising goal. Please enjoy today’s featured project!
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I come from a long line of entrepreneurs and restaurateurs. My grandmother, with very few resources, made curry puffs (a Southeast Asian crusty pie filled with chicken and potatoes) out of her home in Bangkok, Thailand, delivered them to area school cafeterias and created a thriving business that sustained her family for years. My parents later opened a small but bustling cocktail lounge and food stall that served Thai noodle and rice dishes. Resisting the entrepreneur path most my life, I spent the entire two decades of my professional life working in non-profits, hoping to impact change and create safer, more equitable communities. After getting an up-close and personal view of the funding challenges of the non-profit world, I began to see an extraordinary opportunity for non-profit organizations and businesses to partner more strategically for the better good.
Launched in the summer of 2016, Noodle Nirvana was a fast casual, build-your-own noodle bowl shop committed to creating quality, fresh local foods, and to uplifting communities. Our motto was “Build your bowl. Feed your soul.” We built our entire business around a social enterprise model that prioritized people over profits. In our first five years, together with our staff and community, we raised almost $200,000 for four local non-profits that included a food bank and a domestic violence shelter.
But no one could have imagined 2020 and the extraordinary circumstances that followed the pandemic. It was, and continues to be very hard for small, independently owned businesses to keep the lights on. With rising food and labor costs, along with a shift in consumer spending, our business model was no longer sustainable and Noodle Nirvana finally closed its doors in October of 2023.
Since closing, not a day goes by without someone asking if we’d ever consider re-opening or doing a pop-up so they can get their “fix” of Mom’s Curry or Drunken Noodles. It seems that Noodle Nirvana has developed quite a following over the years and who are we to deny people their noodle cravings? While we’ve closed this chapter of our lives, my mom and I wanted to find a meaningful way to share our recipes with all of our amazing customers over the past seven years. And thus, the idea of a Noodle Nirvana cookbook was born. We are grateful to partner with our talented friend and artist, Jessica Holly on this project. Jessica designed our iconic octopus mural on the walls in both of our locations! We may not be building your bowls for you anymore, but we sure hope this cook book continues to feed your soul.
As of December 27th, this project has raised $17,000 of their $3,000 goal. This project has 10 days left to raise as much as it can. For a pledge of $5, you will get a social media shoutout. For a pledge of $25, you will get one book. To learn more and to pledge money, go to: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/997544728/noodles-drinks-world-peace-recipes-from-noodle-nirvana?
Categories: Crowdsourcing Mornings Stuff
