Community Kitchen

[thespian.livejournal.com]

For a good long while, since I left Toronto (where we had an excellent one at Foodshare), I have been wanting to start a community kitchen here in Somerville.

A good community kitchen offers several things:

• Informal skillshare-style classes in food preparation
• Lectures and workshops by chefs and food professionals
• Kitchen rental for organizations that need do large scale food prep
• Access to unusual or expensive (often infrequently used) pieces of equipment for members
• Incubation and a certified kitchen for individuals who are looking to start food-based businesses
• A library and resources for members to research recipes, food history and nutrition information
• A community space for interested foodies

Some of them offer more (some offer soup kitchens, some offer food prep for ill/disabled/elderly people in the community, some offer discounted ServSafe certifications to unemployed people who can use it to get jobs, etc). The needs of the community change what gets offered.

I would like to have an initial meeting with anyone else in the community who would be interested in this project. So if you'd like to get involved, I would like to meet March 8th, at 7pm. Location TBA once I have an idea of how many people would like to attend. If you operate a business in Somerville and would be interested in hosting us, please let me know.

If you have any questions, or to RSVP, please send email to kitchen at sleepingcat dot com.

Comments

[countlibras.livejournal.com]

ooh, that sounds like fun. as long as I'm free, I'll attend. :)

Good idea!

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

:-D

[laryu.livejournal.com]

Nice idea. As your business plan comes together, the City of Somerville might be a useful resource.

You are aware, I'm sure, that Nuestra Culinary Ventures failed last year. (NCV was a community kitchen/incubator in JP.) Someone else has taken them over (Crop Circle Kitchen) but I'm not sure if they're up and running. In any case, might be useful to understand why NCV failed to survive and learn from their experiences.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

however, this isn't a business, but more akin to a co-op. unlike NCV (which actually closed about 3 years ago if I recall), which was an incubator, this is a more general purpose community kitchen (NCV was only available to businesses). They also had issues with the prix fixe kitchen rental; businesses that had been there 6 years and were very successful paid the same as a brand new business, and it was frequently unsupervised (they used an honour system for kitchen signups).

I have a different model in mind (which will of course change as we evolve, based on this kitchen that I was involved in when I lived in Toronto: http://www.foodshare.net/kitchen01.htm

[notnatalie.livejournal.com]

This idea has been batted around Union Square for a while. A few years ago some Tufts UEP students did a feasibility study for one, working with Somerville Community Corporation - you could ask them about it (probably Meredith Levy, if she still works there, would be familiar). I know that its hard to get one going mostly because they are very hard to finance. The one in Jamaica Plain, Nuestra, basically lost money from the get-go and had hundreds of thousands of dollars from the city amongst others trying to help. It is unlikely in this financial climate that that will happen.
Having said that, I think a well-organized thoughtful group could approach some restaurant kitchens that are not in constant use and try to work a deal for specific shared-use rights. I am sure there a liability and hygiene concerns but the right owner might appreciate the extra income.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Maybe the folks at the Western Massachusetts Food Processing Center (http://www.fccdc.org/fpcabout.html) would have advice for you about how to set up such a kitchen in Massachusetts.

[relustoian86.livejournal.com]

Any community kitchen should also inform people about the importance of kitchen furniture and the ergonomic high of the counter top and cabinet refacing (http://www.usremodelers.com/).