The TRUreligion Pancake and Steakhouse in Orem is more than just a restaurant — it’s a charity.
TRUreligion’s Second Chances Charity provides housing, a job at the restaurant and other support for the recently incarcerated, homeless and other individuals in need.
“We're not just in the dozens anymore,” Todd Leonard, Executive Chef, said. “We're approaching the hundreds of people that we've been able to affect.”
Two of these individuals are spouses Phillip and Mikaela Dame who work as dishwashers at TRUreligion. Phillip Dame said he was a heavy alcoholic before discovering the Second Chances Charity.
“My doctor told me that I had about a year left to live if I just kept continuing on drinking,” Phillip Dame said.
He said TRUreligion gave them housing and supported him in finding the help he needed to stop drinking.
“They've taken out of their personal time to kind of help us through our situation,” Mikaela Dame said.
Second Chances has also changed Kitchen Lead Jesse Wight’s life. Leonard offered her a job at TRUreligion while she took his culinary class at Utah Valley University.
“He saw something in me that I lost,” Wight said. “He saw my passion, my care and my drive.”
Wight said Second Chances helped pay for her education expenses and necessary dental work.
“I just have been able to find myself and be truly happy with myself again,” Wight said.
Leonard said the Second Chances Charity has always been an essential part of TRUreligion as a way to give back to the community.
“When life gets you down, and you're just short changed — your tires blew, and you didn't have any money. Something happened,” Leonard said. “The Second Chance program was right there to be the saving grace in a lot of people's lives.”
TRUreligion also invites its customers to round up their check to the nearest dollar to support the Second Chances Charity.