Over the weekend, SNAP benefits loomed over purgatory for nearly 42 million Americans amid the government shutdown. Following a court order, the administration agreed to partially fund November’s benefits, though with a disbursement delay, causing serious challenges for families and individuals who rely on the program. Communities and local governments across the country immediately launched into response mode, pulling together food access and distribution resources. To help the shared kitchen industry leap into action, we created a Shared Kitchen Playbook for Activating a Community Food Access Response Plan.
Shared kitchens sit at the intersection of food production, entrepreneurship, and community impact. They are uniquely positioned to respond and organize when systems experience stress or disruption. Activating resources, partnerships and community members can take time, and in urgent circumstances, time is a privilege many cannot afford to wait on. We saw many shared kitchens transform into community distribution hubs during COVID-19, including my own experience at SAME Cafe in Denver. At the start of the pandemic, we transformed our pay-what-you-can restaurant into a hub for meal distribution, serving 7,200 meals in the first month. These efforts demonstrate how kitchens can become lifelines for their communities when traditional systems falter.
There are many avenues your kitchen can take when organizing for food access, including offering prepared meals for pick up, meal prep kits, or dry goods. The key is to identify what your kitchen does best, understand what other organizations are doing, and assess the needs of your community. Because shared kitchens are ideal for large-scale cooking, this Playbook focuses on activating your kitchen as a prepared meal distribution center. Many of these processes are easily adaptable for meal prep or dry goods distribution, making the Playbook flexible to your community’s needs.
This Playbook is meant to serve as a roadmap for developing a plan to activate and sustain food access efforts during times of urgent need. In it you will find checklists, templates, logs, role responsibility outlines, and more, all designed to help kitchens respond quickly, safely, and effectively. Having a plan in place before a crisis hits ensures your kitchen can move from thought to action in hours rather than days, maximizing impact when your neighbors need it most.
Download the free Shared Kitchen Playbook for Activating a Community Food Access Response Plan.
