I may not be a neutral observer, but it is hard to argue with the success of FEED Kitchens, Northside Planning Council’s largest and most intensive initiative. Nearing 11 years of operation, over $17 million in gross revenue has been generated by entrepreneurs working out of FEED, over 500 full and part time jobs have been created, over 30 startup food businesses have graduated to their own bricks and mortar or contracted production arrangement, and at this writing, 70% of the businesses working there are owned by people of color and over 50% owned by women. Northsiders, as well as the entire Madison region, have every reason to be proud of this economic/food systems development powerhouse that lives on Sherman Ave.
For all its success in providing public benefit, one might think FEED Kitchens is well supported by economic and food system development dollars, whether they be private or governmental. Having worked in nonprofits my entire professional career, if I were on the outside looking in, this is exactly what I would assume. But I, or anyone else making this assumption, would be wrong.
FEED Kitchens receives very little outside support. Most of what we accomplish is done with our own earned dollars from renting kitchen and storage space to the entrepreneurs working here. FEED Kitchens opened with no operational support, and after 11 years, 85% of our budget comes from our own earned revenue. The remaining 15% is attained through our Taste the Future event, the occasional small grant for a specific project, and individual donations. This is a tough place for FEED to be in as raising our prices to meet our spending needs works against our mission of keeping the space open and accessible to anyone wanting to start a food business, regardless of wealth or background. It also means that, when equipment fails and needs fixing or replacing, we swallow hard and spend the money so businesses can keep operating.
FEED Kitchens is held up by folks in the know as the model for incubator kitchens in the State of Wisconsin, and folks from all over the country are referred here for advice and to take a peek at our model. While we take these referrals as a compliment, we also find them a bit ironic given the roadblocks we have faced in attempting to garner support. The reality is there is little profit or dividends to extract from food businesses, so folks funding business startups and acceleration shy away from them in favor of manufacturing, technology. It is time to start looking at investments into spaces like ours, not as an investment to extract profit, but as an investment in our community and our local food system. The Northside Planning Council does, and it is time for the rest of the community to catch up.
