The restaurant where you pay what you want

A Florida cafe is changing the face of the restaurant industry by allowing customers to pay what they want for meals.

At Mosaic's Community Cafe in Bartow, there are no prices on the menu - customers pay what they want, what they can, or volunteer for an hour for a free meal.

The community-based sit-down restaurant, which opened on Tuesday, is the creation of Libbie Combee, a former drug addict who also opened a ministry for substance abusers in Bartow several years ago.

The menu offers a variety of choices, including kale slaw, a Banh Mi sandwich and a rotisserie chicken meal that comes with two sides. Patrons pick their portion size as to not waste food.

The items are not priced, but the menu highlights suggested donations.

“I've always lived by the principal it is better to give than to receive,” Combee said. “It's kind of degrading a lot of times when people that are in need are just given a free handout.”

If a person can't pay for their dish, they can volunteer for an hour at the restaurant or at the ministry to receive a token worth one meal.

Some people who want to give back also purchase tokens for those in need.

“We have folks who want to give back to their community, but don't necessarily have the time to volunteer,” Combee said.

She added that these tokens help a variety of people, including the 'many, many senior citizens who live on a fixed income'.

Approximately 17.4million US households 'were food insecure at some time during 2014', according to the US Department of Agriculture.

Combee has said in a Facebook video that her ministry has fed people in her community who are homeless and struggle with addiction as well as elderly people on fixed incomes and low-income families.

And Mosaic Community Cafe allows those people to have a more traditional dining-out experience and encourages people to volunteer.