Help Build Our Community Kitchen!
Donation protected
Help West Philly's Community Supported Kitchen become one from which community dreams are served!!
First, an update for those of you who have been following along ::
We have now signed a contract for the work, paid the deposit, and will begin as soon as our permit is issued. This renovation is happening! Thank you so much to everyone who has already donated! We now need any help available to finish the last of our fundraising.
The total estimated cost of the work is about $75,000, and we have already raised about $60,000. Your support with the remaining $15,000 will allow us to enter this renovation season with the easeful knowing that we can cover the costs of this amazing transformation.
The renovation is expected to last about 3-6 months. During this time we will continue our work as best we can, but will definitely be slowing down. Any donations we receive over and above the costs of the renovation itself will help support us during this time of being less able to earn income through cooking & hosting, cover unexpected overages, and continue to seed the generosity of this space far into the future.
More information about our food & community work, and about this renovation (featuring new before & after illustrations!)::
For the past 7 years, the CSK has been planting the seeds of a more resilient world by sharing skills & knowledge required to prepare amazing food anywhere, while investing in local community & a regenerative food system that nourishes deeply any place we call Home. We offer abundant pathways to righteous, low-to-no-cost food through: delicious educational events; a subscription menu of nourishing pantry staples (available to anyone!); food offerings at myriad community meetings, and much more, all while using donated food items that would otherwise go to waste. All of our offerings are donation-based, sliding-scale and all of our events are NOTAFLOF (No One Turned Away for Lack of Funds).
In the fall of 2017, we moved to a new Home (the House of the Pink Panther), which we knew would need some big kitchen renovations in order to continue to effectively serve our friends & neighbors in West Philly & beyond.
While our present kitchen is indeed serviceable for cooking -- the subscription menu, donations processing, and indeed more -- we do not presently have enough space to host community cooking events (Cook Days) and we are quite limited in the number of cooks who can work in the kitchen at once (it starts to feel crowded with just 3 or 4 of us). We want to be able to cook, teach & learn together!
See here an illustration of what would happen if we tried to host a Cook Day in our kitchen as it is …
Our planned renovations will radically transform the space. We'll be removing two staircases (relocating only one of them) in order to enlarge the kitchen, which will then be separated from the dining room only by a bar counter. We will also be investing in a larger stove/oven, and installing an island with electrical outlets & a nice big sink (we are currently working with a wobbly folding table island).
And now see an illustration of the magic we are calling in to CSK Cook Days in our newly renovated kitchen! Note that everyone’s needs are so well met that they are better able to learn, have fun, & connect to one another ;) <3
These changes will enable us to host delicious educational food events (always No One Turned Away For Lack of Funds) and will increase our capacity to process & distribute donated foods that would otherwise be wasted.
These changes will also support K is for Kitchen, the worker-owned cooperative that grew out of the CSK. Through K is for Kitchen, we help people connect to a passion for Life through delicious, ethically-sourced food experiences. Our services include holistic diet consultations (your first consult is sliding scale $0-99! Intake form here), ancestral foodways consultations, catering, personal chef-ing, educational dinner parties, & more. This endeavor also offers us the income we need to sustain ourselves and to keep the CSK donation-based. Having a renovated kitchen out of which to work will help us continue to grow this beloved business, and to welcome in additional worker-owners(!), thus offering meaningful regenerative employment & business ownership in our community.
We need YOUR HELP to make this dream a reality!
Ways to give, in order of preference ::
-- Check made out to Angie Swiggum & mailed to 1220 S 51st St, Philadelphia PA, 19143 (this means we avoid GoFundMe processing fees, and your gift goes further!)
--Donate here on this GoFundMe page
--Contact us at [email redacted] or call [phone redacted] (Acorn & Frances Rose’s shared phone) to discuss offering us a 0% interest loan
We will be so grateful for any support you can offer, as will be the countless people who eat around our table!
THANK YOU! <3
First, an update for those of you who have been following along ::
We have now signed a contract for the work, paid the deposit, and will begin as soon as our permit is issued. This renovation is happening! Thank you so much to everyone who has already donated! We now need any help available to finish the last of our fundraising.
The total estimated cost of the work is about $75,000, and we have already raised about $60,000. Your support with the remaining $15,000 will allow us to enter this renovation season with the easeful knowing that we can cover the costs of this amazing transformation.
The renovation is expected to last about 3-6 months. During this time we will continue our work as best we can, but will definitely be slowing down. Any donations we receive over and above the costs of the renovation itself will help support us during this time of being less able to earn income through cooking & hosting, cover unexpected overages, and continue to seed the generosity of this space far into the future.
More information about our food & community work, and about this renovation (featuring new before & after illustrations!)::
For the past 7 years, the CSK has been planting the seeds of a more resilient world by sharing skills & knowledge required to prepare amazing food anywhere, while investing in local community & a regenerative food system that nourishes deeply any place we call Home. We offer abundant pathways to righteous, low-to-no-cost food through: delicious educational events; a subscription menu of nourishing pantry staples (available to anyone!); food offerings at myriad community meetings, and much more, all while using donated food items that would otherwise go to waste. All of our offerings are donation-based, sliding-scale and all of our events are NOTAFLOF (No One Turned Away for Lack of Funds).
In the fall of 2017, we moved to a new Home (the House of the Pink Panther), which we knew would need some big kitchen renovations in order to continue to effectively serve our friends & neighbors in West Philly & beyond.
While our present kitchen is indeed serviceable for cooking -- the subscription menu, donations processing, and indeed more -- we do not presently have enough space to host community cooking events (Cook Days) and we are quite limited in the number of cooks who can work in the kitchen at once (it starts to feel crowded with just 3 or 4 of us). We want to be able to cook, teach & learn together!
See here an illustration of what would happen if we tried to host a Cook Day in our kitchen as it is …
Our planned renovations will radically transform the space. We'll be removing two staircases (relocating only one of them) in order to enlarge the kitchen, which will then be separated from the dining room only by a bar counter. We will also be investing in a larger stove/oven, and installing an island with electrical outlets & a nice big sink (we are currently working with a wobbly folding table island).
And now see an illustration of the magic we are calling in to CSK Cook Days in our newly renovated kitchen! Note that everyone’s needs are so well met that they are better able to learn, have fun, & connect to one another ;) <3
These changes will enable us to host delicious educational food events (always No One Turned Away For Lack of Funds) and will increase our capacity to process & distribute donated foods that would otherwise be wasted.
These changes will also support K is for Kitchen, the worker-owned cooperative that grew out of the CSK. Through K is for Kitchen, we help people connect to a passion for Life through delicious, ethically-sourced food experiences. Our services include holistic diet consultations (your first consult is sliding scale $0-99! Intake form here), ancestral foodways consultations, catering, personal chef-ing, educational dinner parties, & more. This endeavor also offers us the income we need to sustain ourselves and to keep the CSK donation-based. Having a renovated kitchen out of which to work will help us continue to grow this beloved business, and to welcome in additional worker-owners(!), thus offering meaningful regenerative employment & business ownership in our community.
We need YOUR HELP to make this dream a reality!
Ways to give, in order of preference ::
-- Check made out to Angie Swiggum & mailed to 1220 S 51st St, Philadelphia PA, 19143 (this means we avoid GoFundMe processing fees, and your gift goes further!)
--Donate here on this GoFundMe page
--Contact us at [email redacted] or call [phone redacted] (Acorn & Frances Rose’s shared phone) to discuss offering us a 0% interest loan
We will be so grateful for any support you can offer, as will be the countless people who eat around our table!
THANK YOU! <3
Organizer
Angie August Swiggum
Organizer
Philadelphia, PA
