Cat Tales Cat Cafe receives $30,000 grant, one of 25 across the country

Cat Tales Cat Cafe, the two-story cat lounge on Franklin Street, was one of 25 small businesses in the country to receive a $30,000 enhancement grant through the Backing Small Businesses grant program in January.

The grant program, presented by Main Street America and American Express,provides awards to small businesses based on need, feasibility and community impact, according to Main Street America media relations manager Mike Donohue. 

Originally created in 2021, Donohue said that the program has worked with small town communities to aid in historic and economic revitalization.

Donohue said that the opportunity to apply for the grant was offered to the 500 businesses that were chosen for an initial $10,000 grant in June 2024. He said one thing that Main Street America noticed about Cat Tales was their community involvement, including their adoption, foster, and trap, neuter and release programs.

"I'm assuming that in Chapel Hill, you know, a cat cafe is not on every block," he said. "So that comes from the uniqueness of it."

Lauren Garriga, a staff member at the cafe, said that the cafe also provides a comfortable and interactive environment for rescue cats while they await adoption. Up to 12 cats can live in the cafe at a time, while other cats receive individual care with foster families until they can be placed in the cafe. 

The cafe's priority is not just the quantity of adoptions, but the quality, too, cafe co-owner Katy Poitras said, as well as expressing that some cats are just better fits for some homes.

“We pride ourselves on being matchmakers and getting to know the cats really well so we can make really good suggestions, so that the cat you bring home fits really well into your lifestyle, which leads to happier, long-term overall adoption,” Poitras said.  

The grant the cafe received in June was used to buy cat food for caretakers of stray cats in the community so that they do not have to spend their own money, Poitras said. She also said the cafe’s aid in neutering, vaccinating and microchipping stray cats encourages people to be willing to help care for them although they are not adoptable.

With the enhancement grant, Poitras said thatthe cafe will continue to be able to provide food for caretakers, as well as investing in a number of other community-facing projects. 

Poitras said thatone project the cafe is planning to sponsor is the installment of microchip scanning stations across Orange County. She said that the program will allow lost pets to be returned to their homes more quickly and engage the community to help rather than relying on shelters for that service. 

She said thatbecause North Carolina is consistently ranked third in the country for cat euthanasia rates, Cat Tales Cat Cafe plays an important role in educating and inspiring people to take action. 

“[The grant] is not just benefiting our business, our company, our nonprofit — it's benefiting all these other areas and all these other shelters that are also working to reduce the stray population and get these cats into homes where they belong,” Garriga said. 

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