Eastside Café owners Elaine Martin and Dorsey Barger weren’t content just being business owners. With so many needs and opportunities in the Austin community, the two jumped right into organization and volunteering.

In 1991 the Eastside partners, along with their neighbors, were part of a team that founded the East Manor Rd. Neighborhood Association. They worked with the Austin City Council, the Austin Police Department, and business owners and residents to make the Manor Rd. area a safer place to live and work. The results were tremendous and immediate.

Eastside has worked with area elementary schools providing gardening tools, seeds, consulting and labor to start organic vegetable gardens, which the students maintained and then reaped the rewards. For the last 15 years, we have made our garden available for countless Girl Scout, Brownie, Campfire, and pre-school and elementary school visits so that our neighborhood children can see that squash doesn’t grow on grocery store shelves.

Each year Eastside’s fabulous Soup and Specials Chef Ruth Carter, makes 30 gallons of soup, which goes to the Empty Bowl project to raise money and awareness to feed Austin’s homeless.

Hundreds of charitable organizations receive gift certificates from Eastside each year to help raise money in silent auctions or to thank a special volunteer or teacher.

Above all others there are two very special organizations that are the center of the Eastside owners’ volunteer efforts. Elaine is serving her second term as the Chairperson of the Board of the Waterloo Counseling Center, a non-profit counseling center providing low-cost, sliding scale counseling for those who could not otherwise afford it. Dorsey has volunteered for AIDS Services of Austin for 12 years. She was honored to be given the United Way Champion Volunteer of the Year Award in 2002 for her work as an organizer for the Dining for Life restaurant fundraiser, chairing the Octopus Club fundraising arm of the Paul Kirby Fund, and chairing the Incentives Booth for the annual AIDS Walk Austin.