Other Frequently Asked Questions

A Community Food Center is a new approach to addressing hunger and wellbeing that responds to our community’s desire for stronger connections, better wellness programming, and more support for housing and employment stability.

Through the power of food, Community Food Centers help residents build nourishment, belonging, and opportunity in low-income communities, while bringing people from all cultural and economic backgrounds together.

Our programs provide nourishment, belonging, and prosperity to those living in the 53211, 53212, 53217, 53202, and 53203 zip codes, though our primary zip code (53212) which contains the Riverwest and Harambee neighborhoods, serves approximately 79% of the 19,000 shoppers who come to us annually.

Our shoppers include:

• children (roughly 70% from single parent households)

• under-employed adults

• persons living on fixed incomes

• unemployed individuals with barriers to steady employment

• individuals in crisis experiencing homelessness, mental illness, and addiction.

The families we serve have an average income below $1,300 per month. 

Committed to staying in the area we’ve served for 46 years, we have spent the last five years searching for the ideal location.

Kinship secured the required approvals to purchase this piece of land at at 421 E. Locust Street in the Harambee neighborhood. We closed on the property last February and have spent the last year preparing for the construction of the building.

Our proposed 28,000 square foot Community Food Center will:

• Expand Kinship’s grocery and meal capacity in an accessible, operationally safe, and efficient manner

• Increase current services to support resident stability and combat social isolation

• Offer additional services in health, financial literacy, physical and emotional well-being etc.

• Broaden our workforce culinary and employment program by launching a second social enterprise business in a state-of-the-art catering and production kitchen

Our new home will allow us to expand our programming and dramatically increase our impact.

After carefully exploring whether the trees could be preserved, our team concluded that their removal from the lot was necessary to build the best possible Community Food Center for our neighborhood. We will be repurposing the trees that were removed in a variety of ways.

We are excited to actually expand the green space by planting 30 new trees and activating outdoor areas, including gardens and a greenhouse, creating welcoming green spaces for our community.

We anticipate noise from construction vehicles and activity, as well as minor disruptions on the surrounding streets during the building process.

We greatly appreciate your patience during this time and are looking forward to the timely completion of this project.

We anticipate a completion date of spring 2027, when Kinship’s services will be available to the immediate neighborhood and the broader community.

YES! For our food service programming, we primarily serve the 53202, 53203, 53211, 53212, and 53217 zip codes, but we will serve anyone on a first-time basis.

For our volunteering and other programming, we welcome people from all neighborhoods to joins us in creating community.

As we near completion of the building project, we will share further details about how to become more involved.