I first met Chris several months ago during a Northside Business Association meeting. I had the pleasure of hearing all the wonderful things FEED Kitchens has to offer and provides to the community when Chris gave the group a presentation on the topic. After that meeting, I knew I had to get a tour of the space and see it firsthand. Chris was gracious and spent time with several Willy Street Co-op staff members, taking us through the facility and explaining all the different business components of this organization, a bit of history, and all the many success stories. I knew this place was special prior, but after seeing it for myself, I knew that our Owners who may be unfamiliar with this organization or have seen the building while driving by but never really knew what happened there, would be very interested in learning more. Please continue reading to hear Chris’ story as he walks you through the concept, purpose, and mission of FEED Kitchens below. Additionally, if you would like to support FEED Kitchens through your grocery dollars at the Co-op, consider purchasing at our stores their scones, morning buns, Danish, muffins, sticky buns, cookies, brownies, bars, and coffee cake. We also carry several Inclusive Trade products are made at FEED Kitchens, which currently include: MoJo’s Majik, Madame Chu, Mad Maiden Shrub, Mango Man, Ernie’s African Kick Sauce, and Chrysalis.
Lastly, for those of you who enjoy taking our cooking classes, you are in for a treat! We have partnered with FEED Kitchens to bring you a cooking class into the community located at their facility, featuring new class instructor and Willy Street Co-op’s own, Mike T., who has worked many years at our Production Kitchen. For more registration information about this and other classes we offer, please visit www.willystreet.coop/events.
Inclusive Trade at FEED Kitchens featuring Madame Chu Sauces
Thursday, June 22, 6:00-7:30 pm at FEED Kitchens
Join Willy Street Co-op’s own Mike Tomaloff for a summertime series of cooking classes featuring the Inclusive Trade vendors of FEED Kitchens. In this first class, Mike will feature the products of Madame Chu in a variety of recipes, including Cold Noodles with Green Onions, and Cilantro with Satay Peanut Sauce; Kimchi Filled Steam Buns with Sambal Sauce; and Fresh Veggie Spring Rolls with Ginger Garlic Sauce. Demonstration with limited hands-on opportunities. Please see the Community Room Calendar for full details.
Keep an eye out for two more classes added in August and September featuring additional Inclusive Trade vendors. For those who are unfamiliar with our Inclusive Trade Program that rolled out in May, this Program was created to highlight products from companies owned, controlled, and operated by individuals from under-represented groups. For more detailed information about this new program, please see www.willystreet.coop/inclusivetrade.
I know you have a long history in Madison food systems; what brought you to FEED Kitchens?
CB: “My tenure at FEED Kitchens began as a bit of a happy accident. In the summer of 2015, myself and Joe Mingle started a food recovery initiative, Healthy Food for All, that was initially focused on the collection and distribution of excess local farm production. My previous jobs at Community Action Coalition and FairShare CSA Coalition had revealed a gap in our food system that we were seeking to fill by collecting and distributing healthy local food. At about the same time I was approached by the Executive Director of Madison Northside Planning Council (NPC) to join their board to help steward FEED Kitchens. At that time FEED had been open for a little over a year and, like many startups, was struggling to find its footing. By the fall of that year, NPC had received a Local Food Promotion Program Grant from the USDA and was looking to make a hire to fill a new position. I agreed to take the position as an LTE until they found their hire and—seven plus years later—I now manage the facility and lead NPC’s food programs. In the spring of 2016, Healthy Food for All joined NPC as a program embedded at FEED Kitchens.”
Why was FEED Kitchens created?
“Madison and the surrounding region takes great pride in our local food system, but prior to the opening of FEED Kitchens, there was very little capacity around Dane County for the processing of products grown right here and for food business development. FEED was created specifically to provide infrastructure in our local food system for the processing of regional farm production in an effort to make local food products available to consumers year-round. Equally important was providing commercial kitchen production space for food entrepreneurs of all types as well as a community space to support culinary efforts of local nonprofits and community groups.”
How do the Northside Planning Counsel and FEED work together? What is your vision together?
CB: “FEED Kitchens is a program of Madison Northside Planning Council (NPC) and, while from the outside looking in we appear to be two distinct entities, we are administratively closely tied together. Prior to the opening of FEED Kitchens, NPC was a relatively small agency doing community outreach on the Northside and publishing the Northside News. As a regional facility, FEED Kitchens expands NPC’s reach beyond the Northside and adds a big burden to its annual budget. At the start of 2023 NPC shuffled its administrative structure to divide the stewarding of our food programs from our Northside outreach activities. As the Director of Food Systems for NPC, and the manager of FEED Kitchens, I work closely with NPC’s Executive Director and board to coordinate program planning and marshal our budgets.”
Tell us about the FEED Bakery Training Program. How does this program help those looking to get into the baking industry?
CB: “Since the doors opened at FEED Kitchens in November of 2013 there has been a bakery training program hosted here. The first program here was Just Bakery, which was incubated for a few years before moving into their own space. Paralleling the Just Bakery program was the River Food Pantry Bakery Training. This initiative was similar to Just Bakery’s but focussed on a slightly different clientele. When The River Food Pantry decided that running an off-site training program stretched their capacity too thin, Madison Northside Planning Council assumed the program and has operated it since then. The training is a combination of classroom instruction and hands-on work in our bakery. Kitchen math, bakery science, and general work skills are all taught in the class. Students also are given instruction in safe food handling and will test for their ServSafe certification while with us. Besides learning baking skills, students get firsthand experience working in a commercial kitchen doing fast-paced production. With the wide variety of food businesses operating at FEED students are also introduced to an array of cooking and production styles and methods and learn to communicate positively in a busy environment. Graduates of the class are ready not just for baking jobs, but any job in food production/back of kitchen. Given that students in the class have families and many have limited transportation options, many of the jobs we place and support folks in are institutional—hospitals, nursing homes, cafeterias. These jobs may not allow as much culinary creativity, but they do provide family-supporting wages, benefits, and decent daytime hours allowing them to be at home when their children are there in the evenings.”
How has Willy Street Co-op partnered with you throughout the years?
CB: “Willy Street Co-op has been a critical partner of Madison Northside Planning Council in general and FEED Kitchens specifically. Well before FEED Kitchens was built, Willy Street Co-op provided monetary support for the build-out and technical assistance for how the facility should be set up and operate. Since FEED’s opening Willy Street has been supportive of the vendors operating at FEED and has given their products opportunities to find their way to the Willy Street shelves, providing, for many, their first opportunity to distribute their products wholesale. Willy Street also provides technical assistance, sampling opportunities, and feedback on product labeling and marketing—all invaluable to the entrepreneurs at FEED. Willy Street has also provided in-person workshops at FEED on grocery shelf placement and working with retailers.
Then there’s the cookies, Danish, and other baked goodies made by the FEED Bakery and Training Program that are sold at all the Willy Street Co-op locations. Willy Street has been a fantastic partner in promoting the baked goods and featuring the program in its in-store marketing. This has led to a tremendous increase in sales and revenue for the program. FEED Bakery and Training operates as a social enterprise and all profits made by the sale of our bakery is funneled back into the training program to support the students. This revenue helps us pay for instructors, ServSafe testing, and, this year, allowed us to create an internship program so that our students get paid while attending the training. All of this is vitally important as the program continues to grow and evolve.
Finally, Willy Street Co-op has been supportive of the overall agency of NPC. When the northside of Madison was going to be left without an accessible grocery store with the closing of Pierce’s, Willy Street Co-op worked openly and productively with NPC and northside residents to negotiate a move to Sherman Plaza and meet the affordable and cultural food needs of future shoppers. Willy Street Co-op—NorthNorth now works closely with NPC in creating community through northside events.”
What are some small business graduation success stories through FEED that you can share?
“As FEED Kitchens approaches its 10th anniversary, the graduations and success stories are starting to come on a regular basis. FEED Kitchens now counts no less than 28 businesses as graduates that are now operating out of other facilities or their own facilities. Some of our recent graduates include Far Breton Bakery, now in the former New Orleans Take Out on Fordem Ave, Off the Block Salsa and Pizza, now in the Ella on East Washington Ave., and Spark Spices, which has moved into a facility closer to his home in Milton. Cultura Cali food cart has just moved out of FEED Kitchens to open Jalisco Cocina Mexicana on King St. Other notable graduates from FEED over the years include: Madison Chocolate Company, Driftless Chocolates, Little Tibet, Beef Butter BBQ, 100 Mile Sauce, Sookie’s Veggie Burgers, Fifth Scoop Vegan Ice Cream, Ice Cream Social, and Keene Garlic.”
How many small businesses do you work with today? Can you support more? If so, how does one become a member?
CB: “FEED Kitchens’ current roster includes 82 active businesses. The mix of businesses includes food carts, food trucks, caterers, bakers, baking mixes, snack foods, beverages, sauces, salsas, syrups, and a coffee roaster. Even with 24/7 access to the kitchens, with only 5 production spaces one might imagine how all those businesses fit at FEED, but not every business is doing daily production. Depending on the product a business may be here almost daily (bakers, food carts), as events require (caterers), or as inventory runs low (packaged products). This mix allows us to bring in as many entrepreneurs as we do and it requires that all of us work together in a cooperative and supportive spirit—a demand that is met easily by the folks working here. We can certainly support more businesses here, but there is a limit to the types of businesses and available times for production so each business wanting to become a member here is assessed for their production needs and times to see if they can fit into the existing flow of the space. We are maxed out on food carts and caterers but can fit in more bakers and value-added product makers.
“Becoming a member at FEED is a fairly simple process. Entrepreneurs can simply fill out the application on our website and send it in which will start a conversation and process. I generally think it is best to give us a call or stop in and have a discussion about your business before applying as we can give immediate feedback on business ideas, assess whether to proceed with an application, and connect you to food business resources.”
I heard you were recognized by some major luminaries in the food industry. Can you tell me about that story?
CB: “At all levels of the food supply chain, the work is difficult, messy, and generally lower paying. Because of this, it tends to churn through people. This is a very capitalist view of the system, people as a means of production, but the reality is that workers tend not to stick around long. For this reason, I think that any recognition I have received is a reward for the tenacity to stick it out. Having performed numerous roles, I do believe that I have a unique view of our local food system and it is important to share this and be somewhat of a historian. On the other hand, I do not believe in holding any single person up as knowing the answers or the right path. I find new ideas bubbling up all the time and there is great energy in our region for creating something different and all those voices need to be heard.”
What is your vision for the future for FEED?
“Having been open now for nearly ten years, having gone through the pandemic and maintained a safe production facility, and having to respond to local needs and trends, we have learned a lot of lessons in the operation of a shared kitchen business incubator and in the needs of the entrepreneurs working here. We are now in the process of assessing those lessons and strategically planning our future. Things that we know for sure are:
“There is inadequate food cart production space in Madison. Regardless of their production model, food carts are required to operate out of a commercial kitchen, and FEED can provide this space for a certain number of food carts. As food cart opportunities expand post-pandemic, the number of shared commercial kitchen spaces has decreased. This is putting a lot of pressure on us here at FEED, and, as Madison enjoys the rich diversity of flavors that food carts bring to us, we feel some responsibility in helping solve the logjam.
“FEED Kitchens has a responsibility to our vendors to work with the Public Market Foundation to help place vendors appropriately in the Market (permanent/seasonal, kiosk/store) and to work with the cohort of vendors who went through our Market Ready program to build capacity to vend at the Market. These folks have been waiting a long time. FEED Kitchens also plans to have our own store at the Public Market where all products made here can get immediate shelf placement. All of this will begin moving forward in the next few months with an eye to a 2025 opening.
“Finally, having gone through the pandemic and focusing on internal operations and keeping a safe production facility, I am looking forward to FEED Kitchens developing a more outward focus and connecting with the community. For the benefit of our entrepreneurs, this means more partnerships with support services, more marketing opportunities, and more involvement with the larger entrepreneurial landscape in Madison. For FEED itself, it means more focussed storytelling through a variety of media, a return to pre-pandemic events, and the development of strategic partnerships that can help advance our mission and awareness in the community.”
How did COVID impact FEED and how can the community help?
CB: “When the initial stay-at-home order came in March 2020 FEED Kitchens was just a week away from our signature fundraising event, Taste the Future. This event was canceled and we are hopeful to finally bring it back this fall. With no one on the streets and folks working from home, and all events canceled there was no reason for food cart operators and caterers to be working so the flow of activity at FEED came almost to a full stop. FEED exists primarily on earned revenue from the use of kitchen space and storage, so without activity here for very long, we would have been forced to shutter our doors. If this would have happened I am not certain that we would have had the ability to re-open at some point. To avoid closing the doors, to keep some of the chefs working here employed, and to serve the community, FEED Kitchens quickly pivoted and started the FEED-to-Go program. Using grants and donations from the community, FEED hired five chefs who worked on a daily basis to prepare 600 meals that were individually packed and sent out to the community every afternoon. For much of the first 6 months of the pandemic, this was our sole existence and it was, at the same time, both eerie and exhilarating. During the course of the program over 40,000 meals were delivered and 5 chefs maintained their employment and businesses. When folks did start filtering back to FEED Kitchens to do production—mainly bakers and packaged goods producers—we focussed on maintaining a safe and sanitary work environment to keep everybody inside the facility safe. I am happy to say that, during the pandemic, we did not lose a single hour of production due to covid outbreaks in the facility. While we managed to keep FEED Kitchens open throughout the pandemic, our revenue suffered greatly and we are still working on building back. The cost of everything has skyrocketed and just maintaining our current level of equipment and supplies is costing us far more than it did previous to the pandemic. Food-safe gloves, which are necessary in directly handling food traditionally cost us $4 a box prior to the pandemic, but at points during the pandemic we were paying nearly $20 for that same box. This is just one example of the way inflation and supply chain issues have hurt our business, as well as each of the individual businesses operating here.
“Serving as a nonprofit and not wanting to keep our doors open on the backs of the folks we are trying to assist in business startups, it is important to me that folks in the community who appreciate good food made locally, who understand the importance of a well developed and resilient local food system, who believe in the power of locally spent dollars as an economic development tool, and who want to see good people of all backgrounds realize their dreams step up and support our work. As a City, we take great pride in our local food system and our “foodie” credentials, but we also need to understand that these systems don’t develop on their own and we need to support and nurture them.”
Closing Thoughts
I want to thank Chris for taking time out of his busy schedule for this interview, and his continued tireless work on making our food systems accessible throughout Dane County to cultivate opportunities for all. For more information about the work happening at FEED Kitchens, their newsletter, how to become a member, and/or donate to this amazing organization, please visit: feedkitchens.org.
