2023 for One Bistro was one of those years where we tied a knot in the rope and hung on as we journeyed with God, allowing him to stretch our faith, obedience and trust in what He could do! And, once again, the goodness of God and His favor blessed One Bistro immeasurably more than we could have asked or imagined.

The café was closed the first three months of the year while we refurbished the entire front of the house (thanks to a generous ARPA grant); simultaneously putting a new team in place. During this time, we never missed serving our weekly, complimentary Community Meal!

Our Ministry Meal program exponentially grew, allowing us to provide meals to more local non-profits in need. (Toward Independence, Bridges of Hope, Her Story, Hope Hub, Greene County Juvenile Division, Violence Free Futures, Family Promise and AIA World Coaches Conference). We continued to partner with the City of Xenia, providing boxed meals for Neighborhood Night Out, provided “pay-what-you-can” meals for their Red, White & Blue Block Party and hosted the Gingerbread House Contest in the bistro.

We had our largest National Everybody Eats Week, honoring our local First Responders who enjoyed raising funds for us through a friendly pay-it-forward contest.

In November we launched our One Token One Meal program which provides another way to pay-it forward. Our Christmas dinner was extra special including birthday cake for Jesus, singing and gift bags for our One Bistro neighbors/family.

We partnered with a local farmer to source fresh vegetables for our menu and still provide the freshest salads in town with the tender Bibb lettuce grown in the Toward Independence hydroponic gardens which are next door to the bistro.

Our community and neighbors stepped up and showed up in numerous ways through donations, grants, Table sponsorships, Community Meal sponsorships, purchasing tokens and paying-it-forward at the register. It overwhelms our hearts to know our community generously gave One Bistro 7,588 volunteers hours. The monetary donations and volunteer hours allowed us to give away 9476 meals to our hungry neighbors this year and 104,482 meals since One Bistro’s inception.

As the Apostle Paul encouraged the Ephesians to live a life close to Christ, embracing their diversity, living in peace and unity with one another, and remembering all that God has done, so we encourage you. One Bistro is a very special place and we will continue to share hope and love through food, providing a place where our neighbors eat and come together as one community.



2024 has arrived and we invite you to embrace another adventurous year with us, linking arms as family and neighbors and giving God all the glory!

A big, heartfelt thank you to an anonymous donor for providing 120 backpacks filled with essential items and gifts for our men, women, children at our Christmas Community Meal. The joy on their faces cannot be described

Also, a huge thank you to United Way of Greater Dayton for providing extra funding to provide a special meal for our neighbors! Everyone left full and happy!



And, last but certainly not least, we are so grateful for the beautifully created and festive placemats donated by the Scouts from Trebein Elementary and the awesome snowflakes made and donated by Warner Middle School students! Such beautiful artwork!

Dayton247Now printed an article about One Token One Meal!

These tokens are a simple, beautiful and meaningful way to ‘pay it forward’ and to spread One Bistro's deliciousness. When a person purchases a token, they are helping their community café and when they give it away, they are blessing someone else with a meal.

https://dayton247now.com/news/local/one-bistro-in-xenia-to-offer-new-pay-it-forward-program?fbclid=IwAR2qPHobPNyZ81sUxAs0SXuvfjlJtK_n0wAV3XsiCId-4anKKcIF0rVSGxA

XENIA, Ohio (WKEF) -- Patrons of community non-profit One Bistro in Xenia will have a new way to "Pay-It-Forward" just in time for the holiday season.

The bistro's board of directors recently announced their "One Token One Meal" program featuring meal tokens that can be purchased by patrons and handed out as gifts or favors.

Each token costs $10 and can be purchased in any quantity. A token entitles the bearer to one meal during any of the bistro's regularly scheduled café hours, Wednesday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The token concept was discovered by a couple of One Bistro board members during a visit to Fork Real Community Café in Rapid City, South Dakota.

"Board members are always on the lookout for new and creative ideas for building community and feeding our neighbors," said Mary Kettering, a One Bistro associate.

"The goal of the One Token One Meal program is to expand upon the mission of One Bistro -- to provide a place where our neighbors eat and come together as one community," said board member Alex Briggs.

Tokens are available for purchase at the bistro's location on 87 E. Main Street in Xenia.

One Bistro is a food security and community-building non-profit organization, to learn any more please visit their website, onebistro.org.

Avonlea Brown, a Cedarville Student wrote the following piece for Cedarville's Student Magazine, Cedars. We are so thankful for the partnership, promotion and support One Bistro and our community receives from Cedarville University and their students.

We are so thankful for our WONDERFUL Community Meal volunteer groups!

"Great food, all volunteer staff. Great mission "Pay it forward". I highly recommend trying it out." Todd N.

Life Group from Fairhaven Church

Dayton Regional Stem School / Girl Scout Troop #32313

Junior Leadership of Dayton

If you have a group that would like to volunteer, please email info@onebistro.org

or give us a call at 937-736-2358.



We will be happy to find the perfect day, time and opportunity for your group.

Over the summer, we shared a story about Olivet Baptist Church from Paducha, KY. They came to Xenia with Generate Camp by Youth Ministry 360 and volunteered with us in the cafe for a week. They loved the mission of One Bistro so much, after they returned home they hosted their own Community Meal fundraiser to raise money to sponsor a Community Meal with us! What an amazing idea!

https://myemail.constantcontact.com/-Our-Neighbors--News----One-Bistro-s-June-Newsletter.html?soid=1131474722747&aid=hVMmsHR7d_E

Shout out to Kevin Capriotti from Ernst Metal Technologies for using his allotted volunteer hours to serve One Bistro! We greatly appreciate your hard work and service! If your company provides you with the opportunity to volunteer, please consider One Bistro.

One Bistro was able to provide a delicious lunch for Arrowood Elementary School teachers.

"Arrowood Elementary loves to support One Bistro. The food is always delicious. Margie was wonderful to work with and our order was ready on time. We will continue to order from One Bistro. Teachers sure love having a day when they don't have to worry about packing a lunch. One Bistro has always taken very good care of us." ~ Lindsey Cravens

One Bistro is selling their catering van. Here are the specs:

2007 Ford Econoline Wagon

Mileage: 176,344

Cargo van - no back seats

Price: $3,500

Email info@onebistro.org if you are interested or for more information

"Food is always delish & service is exceptional!" Kate B.