For her extraordinary contributions and commitment to changing people’s lives through her expertise and skills in the food industry, Martee Mikalson is this year’s High Impact Award Winner.

Martee was nominated by Margo Dixon of The UPS Store and the Northside Planning Council.

The nominators wrote:

“At age 16, Martee started working in a bakery, and it was the beginning of a long career that gave her exposure to every aspect of food production and retail: she’s an accomplished baker and cake decorator; she spent 20 years managing grocery stores; she worked for Certco Distribution, a local grocery supplier; she operated her own bakery in NorthGate Shopping Center; she sells restaurant and commercial kitchen equipment in her role with Kessenich’s; and, as a consultant, she helps others build and equip their own food businesses. If you take a tour through a restaurant or grocery store with Martee, you will see things in a whole new way. She knows the industry inside and out and holds business models and figures in her head.

“She brought her considerable expertise to the Northside by serving on the FEED Kitchens Advisory Committee from 2009-2013, where she sourced all of our kitchen equipment to get us the best possible prices. She has been invaluable as the chair of the FEED Operations Committee. She’s often at FEED 30-40 hours a week, and her attention to detail and expertise have helped us optimize our operating procedures. Martee does what needs to be done: she’ll clean the bathrooms, scrub the floors and reorganize the storage, whatever’s necessary. Our FEED members have come to regard her as an enforcer of policy, a mediator of conflict and a constant source of knowledge and resources.

“But, really, Martee’s passion is at the intersection of food and social justice. Three years ago, she began working with The River Food Pantry and the Madison Area Urban Ministry to operate two prominent bakery job training programs, which have graduated and placed dozens of people in well-paying jobs. The Just Bakery continues to work out of FEED, and The River Bakery became a part of NPC earlier this year as the FEED Bakery Training Program. With minimal funding in place, Martee essentially volunteered her time to operating one of NPC’s signature programs. The FEED Bakery Training Program engages low-income, underemployed residents in a three month classroom kitchen experience that culminates in certification from the Wisconsin Bakers Association and ServSafe Certification from the National Restaurant Association. The program has an astonishing 100 percent job placement rate for its graduates, partly because of Martee’s many contacts with local restaurants, but mostly because of Martee and her team’s dedication to each and every student. 

“To know Martee is to know a force for good. She is strong, resolute and utterly kind. She speaks her mind, clearly and honestly, but without judgment or recrimination for others. She has a deep well of compassion. Every day, Martee reminds us all about what really matters. This summer, we had a student with two young daughters who was facing eviction, and Martee raised money for us to hire her until she could be placed in a permanent job. In fact, that student is now well employed with Willy Street Co-op. Martee works with the most vulnerable people in our organization, the most vulnerable people in our community, but she never patronizes or condescends. She doesn’t romanticize reality or brush over people’s weaknesses. Yet she has an ability to hold a person’s humanity up to the light and to remember it when others might not. We learn something new from her everyday.”