Our Beloved Open Collective,

Firstly, our shift from Patreon to Open Collective has made a world of difference for us. To have everything we desire all on one hub, from streamlined donation options to financial transparency, has helped us cut down on the ‘admin’ side of things, and left more time for us to do what we do best: slangin’ tasty tasty meals for our community. We’re incredibly grateful to have been able to save up this year enough to comfortably meet the requests of our neighbors living outside. 

Our rag tag crew continues to see shifts as our lives have changed since the inception of F12 People’s Kitchen, but we still hold strong with a small but mighty crew that is dedicated to keeping bellies full throughout the year.

We’ve been operating on a more autonomous schedule than we have before, and this allows for volunteers to engage on a scale that feels right to them. What this has looked like in real time is essentially serving smaller meals more often. Although it feels very fulfilling to be cooking meals for 100+ people at a time, there are time and physical barriers to this. We’ve shifted approach to our meal service slightly in order to make it more approachable to our cooks and distro team. We welcome volunteers to cook smaller meals out of their own kitchens, rather than out of the kitchen space that we rent. 

In the spring of this year we had the privilege of providing burritos for our friends over at East Phillips Urban Farm. East Phillips Urban Farm is a community led project fighting for environmental justice in our neighborhood. After a 10-year fight, the community won the opportunity to turn the industrial Roof Depot warehouse into a cooperatively-owned community hub with an indoor farm and housing. We are incredibly proud to continue to get to work with these folks, and celebrate their win as a win of our own. 

Speaking of burritos: we love to burrito, our hearts are filled with beans and tortillas and rice and all the other things that make burritos delicious. The numbers are unclear, but I would wager that we’ve made around 600 burritos this year. If you are hosting a community mutual aid event, know a front line where hungry people are fighting for liberation, or anything of the like, please reach out to us if you’d like us to provide some food and water. 

We are so grateful for you all believing in our mission of bringing tasty food to unhoused people, and can not thank you enough for the support. We’re excited to keep stirring the pot (sorry I couldn’t help myself) in 2024!

With Love,

F12 People’s Kitchen