Help us Keep Make It Vegan Open!!

Hey y’all,

It’s the Make It Vegan Team here. (That would be us, in the cheezy photos above)

My partner Lincoln and I first came to y’all asking for funds to help because we couldn’t find it any where else. Y’all helped us open our very first brick and mortar location, just a little over a year ago! Since then, we have achieved so much personally and within the business. Shoot, Lincoln and I even got engaged! Woohoo!! 

For anyone who might not know, we are a small, local, queer-owned, vegan restaurant in Lakewood, Colorado. We are all about serving up tasty, nostalgic plant-based meals that are good for people and the planet. All the while supporting our community as much as we can. For instance, we use locally sourced ingredients, we sell other local vegan brands, and we do what we can to minimize our impact on the environment. Which is why we created our container swap system! We even offer house plants for sale from The Green Age, a local business and friend. As well as working with local artists to give them a space to display and sell their stunning work.

Most importantly, we believe that everyone deserves to be paid a fair and livable wage. Especially in a line of work that is so demanding, heavily relied on and yet underappreciated. So we're committed to giving our workers a wage that's well above the minimum, plus ensuring essential benefits like health care.

This is the part that is hard to say and the reality is harsh. Asking for help is never easy, but we are thankful to be surrounded by such a supportive community. Thank you for taking the time to read this and consider helping.

The reason we are here asking for your help is that recently we have come into some financial hardships that are putting our business at risk of closing its doors.

Right away we ran into issues with our equipment that we purchased from the previous owners, costing us hundreds in repairs, new equipment and lost time. Then it went onto a never-ending battle (that is still going on today) of trying to get our HVAC system fixed because it’s been running up our bill due to it being installed improperly, so we were told by a professional and confirmed by the ever changing temperature. Even our customers and staff have been drastically affected by its results. Then we had more unexpected repairs and even loss of important equipment that was beyond our control. After that, we had a burst pipe on the roof spraying water all night long driving our water bill… through the roof, I guess you could say. And so on and so on, creating this domino effect of problems and bills we could not afford to keep up with and only kept burying us further. Not to mention the constant rise of the cost of food, living, utilities, etc. On top of all of that, it's happening during our industry's slowest time of year, right when taxes are due too. During all this, we also had to ensure our employees were paid and paid well. So often, bills had to go on the side line to ensure our employees always came first because if it weren’t for them, we could not be here today. Starting a business completely self funded is almost an impossible task, so we get everyone is not down for the work that it requires. It’s hard. And people are mean and don’t appreciate what you do. You have to be strong in this business as I’m sure you do in many other fields. So to the ones that stuck around- you are the ones who saw us. You saw the endless nights my partner and I would work to ensure this business stays open and our employees had jobs. We were not always perfect, sometimes we literally had -300 in our accounts because of all these problems. But we relied on each other and took care of each other. It was a lot but y’all truly saw us and understood the struggle. You stayed and are still fighting with us. Grey, Ivy and Amanda, you helped Lincoln and I build this place from the ground up. You knew what it meant and you were down for it because you trusted us and communicated with us openly. For that we are forever grateful and will continue to show you that!

In summary, we have had some bad luck this past year and it has drastically affected the state of our business. 

Please know we have tried all other routes first.  We have tried to increase sales but it’s that time of year where things slow down and there is only so much we can do. We’ve tried to get loans, but they only offer small amounts that wouldn't cover much at all, with high fees that will crush us further instead of helping us. We have applied for grants but have heard nothing for months and we need the money fast! So needless to say, we just can't seem to catch a break.

That’s where you come in, hopefully!

We need to raise $20,000 as fast as we can to ensure Make It Vegan can keep it’s doors open! These funds will help repair the damage that has been done, make necessary improvements to increase revenue, get us out of debt with the water company & our landlord, and help pay back our vendors so we can restock our inventory and bring back your favorites like the Caesar Salad, Birria Tacos, Pesto Pancetta and so much more!

We recognize everyone is going through their own struggles, as times are tough right now. So whatever you can offer, whether it be a dollar or hundreds, or even just a quick share to your social media, or mention us to your friends. Any and all of it would help us so much!

And even if you aren’t in the Denver/Colorado area, we hope you will consider donating towards our dream of sharing our delicious plant-based food with the world. We know there is so much more that can come from Make It Vegan and we are hopeful to show y’all that. Most of all, we are forever grateful to y’all for giving us the opportunity to make this a reality.

Your contributions today will help keep our restaurant open, our employees employed and keep another local vegan option in the Denver area!

As a thanks for contributing, any donation of $50 or more will receive 10% back of whatever you donated as a gift card to Make It Vegan! (if your donation qualifies, just come in with your GoFundMe receipt and you will get your discount!)

Thank you for all your support thus far, we couldn't have made it this far without all of you! We hope we can continue to be here serving you delicious vegan food.

From all of us at Make It Vegan;

Lincoln, Grey, Olivia, & Ivy

We love you so much! No matter what happens, this has been the ride of our lives and the animals we saved with each meal is more than enough reward at the end of each day

(For more info on us, or if you have a brand/know of a local brand we can support, go to our website makeitvegandenver.com)