The final episode of Season 3 features an incredible interview with Rae Gomes (@raegomes), the Executive Director of Community Kitchen, and a real food policy powerhouse. Community Kitchen ran a sliding-scale fine dining restaurant out of the Lower East Side Girls Club earlier this year, and gathered a ton of data from this pilot program, which they’re now reviewing in preparation for their next chapter of this very exciting project.
Aside from Community Kitchen, Rae is the Founder & Principal of Cultivating Justice, through which she’s developed community-driven solutions like Root To Wellness, a food-as-medicine project bringing subsidized CSA programs to Central Brooklyn. She’s also the co-founder of Central Brooklyn Food Cooperative; a 2021 Urban Design Forum Fellow with a Food Equity focus; *and* was a member of Mayor Adams’ transition team for food policy. She also has a master’s in creative nonfiction.
In this episode, we get into food hubs, why community fridges aren't the solution everyone thinks they are, who's really profiting off the food system, a ton of organizations all working to build a better food system, the challenges of bringing people into food policy, dreams of public restaurants, and so, so much more.
Links:
Central Brooklyn Food Cooperative (CBFC)
“How Food Hubs Can Help Build Resilient Supply Chains”
“Competitiveness of Small Farms and Innovative Food Supply Chains: The Role of Food Hubs in Creating Sustainable Regional and Local Food Systems”
Civil Eats: “Why Those Community Fridges Won’t Solve Hunger”
Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming
Community Kitchen Team
Chef Mavis-Jay Sanders
Union of Concerned Scientists: “What Is “Big Ag,” and Why Should You Be Worried About Them?”
Studio ATAO - Resisting Gentrification Toolkit
Jenny Dorsey - Regenerative Baking episode
Everytable
Detroit Food Academy
Drive Change
Wellness in the Schools
Nourish Scotland
One Fair Wage
Rethink Food
Emma’s Torch
Rise & Root Farm
West Side Campaign Against Hunger
Community Kitchen - stated goals
The Land, Food, and Freedom Journal - “The Beginnings of The East and The Uhuru Food Co-op”
Support this show: patreon.com/regenerativebaking
Instagram: @regenerativebaking and @dresslerparsons