Community Kitchen Celebrates 200,000 Meals
200,000 delicious, dignified and responsible meals!
Just Fare Community Kitchen ticked over a huge milestone last week when we cooked and delivered the 200,000th meal to communities experiencing food insecurity in the East Bay.
Since Just Fare launched Community Kitchen in May 2020, community-based organization partners have distributed the majority of the meals cooked in our Emeryville kitchen, acting as key connectors between meals and the communities they serve.
In addition to the numbers associated with the impact of these meals on communities, on the local economy and on our team and business, there are hearts and care and connection that are harder to measure. We turned to one of our partners, the Queer Healing Arts Center (QHAC) in Oakland, to describe this best.
QHAC Founder + commUNITY Development Co-Director Kin Folkz spoke at the Alameda County Board of Supervisors meeting on March 23, 2021 to support continued funding from Social Services for food relief (speech begins at two minutes 18 seconds):
“The way that we came together is all about community… and I can say that the work that we've been allowed to do is more than just provide people with nutrition... feeling a little emotional, I hope you understand, because I know what it's like... We also provide human contact… What we discovered is that we did more than just share a meal, we shared the spirit of Oakland. We shared the spirit of humanity coming together during a time of deep despair, actually, this is a pandemic. And the way we came together is something we're so proud of.
I know that we'll continue to do this work. So I just wanted to once again thank you on behalf of the East Bay QHAC, thank you on behalf of the communities that we serve, which are deeply marginalized LGBTQ Black and Brown and Indigenous folks, as well as our allies who are heterosexual, of which there are large numbers. We don't discriminate, we just love.” - Kin Folkz, Founder + QHAC commUNITY Development Co-Director
Queer Healing Arts Center community members prepping to distribute Just Fare Community Kitchen meals to their community of Black, Indigenous + Brown LGBTQ+ identified artists and wellness practitioners in Oakland. Photo credit: Kin Folkz, QHAC (2021)
Every single meal is important, whether it brings nourishment, joy, relief, care, productivity or community. Every meal that comes out of the Just Fare kitchen also brings liveable wages and benefits to our kitchen and hospitality team members, compensation to the community-based organization partners for their distribution work and spending in the local economy on high quality ingredients and supplies from independent farmers and vendors.
Thanks to funding from Alameda County Social Services, Oakland Public Education Fund and Eat.Learn.Play for these 200,000 meals, Community Kitchen partners have also grown their capacity for food distribution, using food both to nourish and connect during an unprecedented time of struggle.
Want to eat delicious food that has a positive impact? The Just Fare Community Impact Model gives you several ways to do that.
Donate directly to Community Kitchen.
Order a meal for Delivery and 1% of revenue goes to support donated meals.
Add a Donated Meal to your Delivery order to have even more impact!
