By Chris Brockel
FEED Kitchens
When FEED Kitchens opened almost seven years ago, it was planned as a community space and a place for budding food entrepreneurs to get a supportive start to their businesses. Over the years the community aspect of FEED has played out in a variety of ways: from pie sales to job training and a lot of points in between.
When the Safer at Home order was issued March 16, FEED was ready with the FEED to Go initiative just three days later. Over the next 14 weeks, up to 600 meals a day were prepared and delivered to families in need throughout greater Madison. These meals provided sustenance for those who could not access food for a variety of reasons. These meals provided employment for five catering and food cart vendors at FEED who lost vending opportunities due to the pandemic. And these meals provided a way for FEED to keep its doors open.
Yes, it is true that, without the FEED to Go initiative operating out of our building, it is likely FEED would have shuttered its doors and would have faced an uncertain reopening. Shuttering the doors would have meant the loss of production space for 65 commercial vendors who operate out of the facility. Not only would many jobs have been lost, but our region was at risk of losing 65 local food businesses. Shuttering our doors would also have meant the loss of community space for 25 nonprofit and community programs that run some level of programming through FEED.
One lesson we have learned during the COVID-19 pandemic is the fragility of our local food system. While we still have a mess to get through, we need to be thinking hard about those lessons and plan during good times to have a food system that can bend but not break during bad times. There are plenty of things those who work inside the local food system can do to make those preparations, but all that planning is meaningless if food consumers don’t work with them.
What does that look like?
Support FEED Kitchens. New and existing food businesses operate at FEED, and without FEED our region loses the presence of a lot of local food choices.
Support FEED vendors. Buy their bakery, hot sauces, meals to go, kombucha and many other products. We can talk a good game, but without sales these businesses won’t stick around. Over 50% of businesses operating out of FEED are owned by people of color, and 50% are operated by women.
By supporting these vendors, you are not only voting to support our local food system, you are voting to support a business owner who has not traditionally had access to resources and capital, so you are building the foundation of generational wealth.