After two decades of serving Tucson's vegan community, Lovin' Spoonfuls is racing to raise enough money to stay open, as rising costs and mounting debt push the longtime Midtown restaurant toward closure.

Located at 2990 N. Campbell Ave., the restaurant was opened in 2005 by Sunny Anne Holliday with the goal of promoting a plant-based lifestyle through brunch and bakery dishes.

Holliday retired in 2016, selling the restaurant to a couple from New York who ran it until 2023, when they offered to sell to current owner Michelle Cornett and her husband, Irais Benavides, a Lovin' Spoonfuls employee, after struggling to operate it financially.

Cornett believed she and Benavides would be able to reduce the restaurant's high labor and food costs, but it hasn't worked out as they planned.

Rising minimum wages and food costs have made daily operations difficult to navigate. Combined with two major loans and costly appliance malfunctions, Cornett said they've been forced to "drastically cut costs."

Lovin' Spoonfuls posted on Instagram June 10 that despite a steady clientele, the debt had become too much for the owners to handle the daily costs of the restaurant.

"We haven't had to let staff go but we've reduced hours," Cornett said. "We've had to put in our savings, my husband hasn't gotten paid in three months. We just have no more money to put into it."

The post originally sought prospective buyers, saying that anyone interested in taking over the restaurant could meet with the current owners June 14. But before the meeting date, Cornett changed her mind, opting to fundraise, instead.

A second Instagram post quickly picked up traction, gaining more than 500 likes and resulting in the owners creating a GoFundMe page, which as of June 18 had received more than $20,000, a quarter of their $75,000 goal.

Cornett said the outreach from the community has been "overwhelming."

"I get goosebumps every time I talk about it," she said. "We are so busy in the restaurant, and there's first-time people that have never been to Lovin' Spoonfuls that are coming in and making big orders or donating however they can. I'm exhausted, but it's great."

She said the Instagram post drew the attention of people outside of Tucson, in communities like Gilbert and Pearce.

This type of support, she said, is what makes Lovin' Spoonfuls special.

"The biggest part of Lovin' Spoonfuls is the community, the guests that we have made relationships with," Cornett said.

Lovin' Spoonfuls isn't the only local restaurant feeling the strain of 2026, with several long-running Tucson businesses closing in the last few months, including Tucson Tamale Company and The Korean Rose.

Earlier this month, Brother John's Beer, Bourbon and BBQ, which occupies the historic Wildcat House building, shut its doors after 11 years of service, citing economic conditions.

Cornett said Lovin' Spoonfuls' future depends on how much money they raise by the end of the month, adding that she hopes they can keep serving the Tucson community.

"If we're as busy as we are right now with the support that we're getting, we could definitely stay open, there's not a question about it," she said. "Once it dies down again, we can't really say."

In the meantime, Cornett and Benavides are grateful for the past couple of weeks.

"For everybody in the community, we're super thankful," Cornett said. "It's not just the people that we see regularly but the new people too. The more the merrier."

Elias Bonilla is a journalism and political science major at the University of Arizona and Tucson Spotlight intern. Contact him at ebonilla1500@gmail.com.

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