BY KATHERINE RAPIN – The Philadelphia Citizen
Last March, as the Covid-19 lockdown got underway in Philadelphia, Cristina Martinez and Ben Miller of South Philly Barbacoa welcomed friend and fellow chef Aziza Young to use their kitchen at El Compadre to provide free meals for low-income and elderly Philadelphians. Collaborating with furloughed chefs, Young prepared 80 meals a day—and started a movement.
Martinez and Miller partnered with 215 People’s Alliance (215PA), a community organizing group, and—pulling from Young’s model—launched The People’s Kitchen. The rotating team makes 215 free meals per day while educating people about food justice issues in the city.
Because the stakes were so high, people thought up and implemented new ideas fast. Ideas that solved not only pandemic-caused problems, but also stubborn problems the pandemic only exacerbated—senior isolation, lack of support for small businesses, poor working conditions for restaurant staff, hunger.
Since late March 2020, The People’s Kitchen has provided over 60,000 free, chef-prepared meals, distributed through partnerships with nine community-based organizations in Latinx, Black, white, and Southeast Asian communities. Some 200 volunteers have supported the project and last summer, they partnered with Church of the Redeemer Baptist in Point Breeze to grow produce on a section of their land.
And the project is still going strong. Every week, The People’s Kitchen employs 20 to 30 diverse chefs, restaurant workers, student apprentices, and emerging community leaders (thus far, they’ve provided 12,000 hours of paid-employment and educational opportunities) At the end of this month they’ll launch their second growing season with 50 plots at Church of the Redeemer.
Related from The Philadelphia Citizen:
A volunteer with The People’s Kitchen hands out literature promoting social justice awareness in Philadelphia
The People’s Kitchen
Local chefs are serving food to those in need, while fueling awareness and action around social justice
Initiatives like these have been among the brightest spots in the nightmare of this pandemic in which there has been so much darkness—starting with the more than 3,000 Philadelphians who have lost their lives to Covid-19 in the last year.
Because the stakes were so high, people thought up and implemented new ideas fast. Ideas that solved not only pandemic-caused problems, but also stubborn problems the pandemic only exacerbated—senior isolation, lack of support for small businesses, poor working conditions for restaurant staff, hunger.
Which is why, of the 13 groups we checked in with (below), all but two—which ran projects directly addressing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) shortages—plan to continue their initiatives in some form post-pandemic. And after hearing from them about their impact, it’s hard not to be in awe of Philadelphians’ ability to dream up holistic, status-quo changing solutions (too bad our politicians can’t do the same).
“I’m really excited about the leadership that has grown from the kitchen, and different projects that have come through this creative food-centered movement,” says Carly Pourzand, 215PA member and The People’s Kitchen’s project coordinator.
The People’s Kitchen has partnered with the Coalition for Restaurant Safety & Health and is co-facilitating worker committees, like the the Comité de Trabajadorxs (Latinx Worker Committee), a group of immigrant workers focused on building a restaurant industry that is is safe and positive for all workers, including those who are undocumented, and both back of house and front of house staff. “We have been in the ‘back of house’ helping restaurants for years,” they wrote in a statement. “Now it’s time to try our food and hear our stories.”
From The Philadelphia Citizen
Photo Essay: Grow Your Own Food
With Covid-19 food shortages looming, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society mobilized thousands of gardeners to grow food and feed their neighbors this year.
As for the original concept, “We plan to continue this free restaurant model as long as food insecurity is a problem in the city, and as long as we can find funding for it,” says Pourzand.
They just launched their sustainer campaign—if 1,000 people donate $25 per month, they could continue providing more than 1,500 meals to hungry Philadelphians every week and power their work to address the root issues of food insecurity.
What’s remarkable is just how many stories there are like this in Philadelphia. See for yourself what stellar citizens of our city have done (and are doing) to get us through the pandemic and beyond.
