Keep the Oven On, 2021 & Beyond
March 4th, 2022
2021, Keep the Oven On & Beyond
ANOTHER YEAR GROWING INTO OUR VALUES
2021 proved to be a wild, fantastic ride. While the year was not short of its challenges for all of us - everyone here at Just Fare came together and did so many amazing things we are proud of. Much of the year was spent re-investing time, money, and energy into what we value most - our employees and our communities. Now, here we are - more prepared to meet market rebounds than ever before and having grown leaps and bounds into our mission and vision:
…to build a just world where food is a force for social change.
In 2021 we:
Changed our name to Just Fare. You can read more about it here.
Produced and distributed 291,604 meals via Community Kitchen, 405,000 to date!
Launched our first direct-to-consumer offering. Sure it closed but we gained invaluable experience and humans as a result!
Moved into 4300 Broadway, our new and expanded commissary kitchen and HQ.
Retained over 70% of our employees!
Hired 64 employees total in 2021, (8 of those were re-hires).
Raised our starting wage to $22/hr.
Merged with Potliquor!
Paid roughly $460,113 to our Community-Based Organizational partners.
Secured $2.5M in favorable funding to keep the plane flying while we continue constructing it.
And carrying us swiftly to 2022, as of this Monday, February 28th, we completed our first ever public fundraiser benefiting Just Fare Community Kitchen - Keep the Oven On. Raising just shy of $12,000 via 64 incredible donors, this is by far the most successful crowdfunding event we’ve had to-date. We are both humbled and motivated by everyone’s support, and will continue to operate Community Kitchen at any capacity we can. Recurring donations, in addition to our Community Impact Program, will be vital in sustaining this powerful project that has kept us, and our communities, going for the last two years.
Now, as we are almost through Q1, we are well poised (and ever so excited) to get back to bringing delicious, responsibly sourced food to Bay Area offices. As the White House prepares a plan for living with Covid, we inch closer to catalyzing our business into the next phase of impactful growth.
Thank you for being advocates, followers and/or customers of this humble little brand. We believe this is only the beginning of building a lasting organization thanks to the unwavering support and work of all 85 of us at Just Fare.
<3 Gabe