The Northside Planning Council has been a part of our community since 1993, but few people who live here could tell you what NPC is or what NPC does. The short description is that we are catalysts for action, a vehicle for greater citizen participation in the decisions and issues that affect our community. Some of our accomplishments are visible to everyone in the community through the resources we use every day — Warner Park Community Recreation Center, the expanded Lakeview Branch Library, the Northside Farmers Market, Community GroundWorks, the Dane County Timebank, bike lanes and better crosswalks on our major streets, our neighborhood associations and, of course, the Northside News. All of our success is based on the slow, steady development of leaders (that’s you) and building the community capacity (that’s also you) to see a project through.

We are also a nonprofit community development corporation with many arms. We are the FEED Kitchens, a hub for food business startups. We are the FEED Bakery Training Program, offering a career path to a living wage. We are Healthy Food For All, providing several tons of food every year to families in need. We have been on a 24-year journey of organizing our community, creating community resources, and spinning them off as independent nonprofits or operating those resources on behalf of the community. Whether we are facilitating the arrival of a new grocer to our neighborhood or training people as bakers, the mission of the Northside Planning Council is to foster equity and improve the quality of life on the Northside through community organizing and economic development.