By Shane Bevell
For one Provo business, the bottom line isn’t the only thing that matters. What does matter is making a difference in the lives of employees and in the community.
Guru’s, a restaurant chain founded by Kevin Hall and Deven Moreno, is opening its third store in Utah, on Center Street in Provo.
Moreno, a former regional manager of Einstein Bros. Bagels, said he always wanted to start a restaurant chain with the primary focus on employees, whom they refer to as partners.
Hall wanted to develop funding for the Guru’s Foundation, a foundation started by him and his wife to promote leadership and responsibility in young people, Moreno said.
The two brought their ideas together and started the Guru’s restaurant chain.
“We feel it was the right thing to do,” Moreno said. “You can make enough profit to share with partners, while also having a positive impact on the community.
“We are focused on helping partners and the community,” Moreno said.
Moreno explained both he and Hall had mentors who helped them develop a positive path in life, so they wanted to do the same for others.
Bryson Perry, 21, a partner from Sandy, said he enjoyed the time spent at the Guru’s Foundation property in the Uintah’s where he attended a retreat with other partners.
“We set goals to try and become better people,” Perry said. “We had workshops to help us balance the spiritual, physical, mental and social aspects of life.”
Perry said giving back to the community is important at Guru’s, where partners work two hours a week in the community.
Guru’s recently teamed up with the one-on-one program through the United Way to clean up the Provo/Orem hill on State Street.
“We didn’t realize there were shrubs and flowers on the hill, because there was so much trash and so many weeds, we couldn’t see that far down,” said Erin Malone, 19, a UVSC student and partner at Guru’s.
Malone said they are trying to have a service project every week.
“Service projects create a strong bond between co-workers, and that helps us have a fun and happy working atmosphere,” Malone said.
In addition to service projects, on each table are donation cards that encourage customers to contribute small sums of money to local organizations. The effort so far has raised about $7,000 for charity, Moreno said.
According to Moreno, they plan to build restaurants in Arizona and California next year, and hope to have around 200 when finished.
