(U-WIRE) FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A group of Fayetteville, Ark., citizens is planning to create a restaurant to employ and train homeless people. But they have some serious tasks ahead of them before they can make the project a reality.

They must overcome many obstacles – raise $200,000 and overcome a deeply entrenched stigma.

Joanie Conners, one of the originators of the project, said it may take the group a year to raise sufficient funds to open the restaurant, which is “really discouraging.” The group hoped a building would be donated toward the cause but later realized it was “unrealistic,” Conners said.

The group is working on paperwork so it can begin to gather donations for the project, which she said will benefit both the homeless and the community of Fayetteville. The building won’t just be a restaurant but will also “provide a place for the community” – a place for gatherings and conversation and eventually workshops and social services, Conners said.

The planners of the restaurant hope to strengthen the community, which has been a principal goal of Seattle’s FareStart and the Sisters of the Road Cafe in Portland.

FareStart’s vision, which has inspired the Fayetteville project, is to “nourish our community by collaborating … to put an end to homelessness,” according to the Web site, Farestart.org.

Because constituents of the project have openly said it will employ the homeless, “some people (in the community) are afraid,” said Kimberly Gross, the executive director of Seven Hills Homeless Shelter.

Gross said homeless people are already working in restaurants throughout Fayetteville, although many people, including their employers, may not realize it. Because many food service jobs do not pay living wages, many workers have restaurant jobs but are still homeless.

Most people do not know that the homeless prepare their food regularly because restaurants don’t say that homeless people work for them, Gross said. The proposed restaurant would be different because of its explicit goal to assist the homeless by employing them.

– Yvette Scorse