Support our local food system and your neighbors with Boise’s City of Good | Opinion
Our KIN crew recently got back from attending the James Beard Award Ceremony in Chicago. It really did feel like the Oscars. Seriously. There was a red carpet with everyone dressed to the nines and celebrity hosts that unveiled winners from sealed envelopes. My team and I were overjoyed to take the award for “Best Chef: Mountain Region” home to Boise.
It truly never would have been possible without the community around us. Which is why I want to share a bit about a nonprofit that has been essential to the founding of KIN: City of Good, a local nonprofit committed to creating and nurturing a sustainable food system that benefits everyone in Boise. City of Good is launching a monthly giving program that allows you to join us on the ground level. Which means that for less than $7 a month, you can provide a neighbor who needs it a locally sourced, nutrient dense, and restaurant prepared meal.
I was lucky to be just one of the founding members of City of Good. Many do not know that our restaurant was granted occupancy of our current location the same day lockdown began in March 2020. Almost overnight, we’d transitioned from the excitement of opening a restaurant to wondering where we would get the funds to keep us afloat and our staff safe.
During this time, my business partner, Remi McMcanus and I also met with fellow restaurant owners and community partners like Dave Krick of Bittercreek Alehouse and the Boise Co-op, almost daily. Together, we were determined to provide meals and jobs to our restaurant families amid the growing pandemic. And in serving our teams, we realized we had just barely scratched the surface of food insecurity in Boise.
Hunger, unfortunately, is a post-pandemic problem as well. From a community perspective, you want your city to thrive, but if your youth isn’t developing because of hunger you run into many more problems. So, in addition to taking care of our team, we, along with several other Boise restaurants, partnered with the Boise School District to create and distribute “fuel kits.”
We had no idea that these kits (six chef-made, kid-friendly meals prepared for 30-40 students in need) would be our launching pad into a full-fledged nonprofit — giving everyone involved pockets of joy under a cloud of despair.
Personally, I saw this through one of our team members who was having trouble with the newness — and terror — that accompanied the global pandemic (weren’t we all?). He felt that preparing the meals gave him something tangible to contribute to our community in a time when we had little control over our circumstances. And for many of us who have been connected to City of Good’s work, we have witnessed the connectedness of Boise in action.
Our system of getting food from local farmers, turning it into nutritious meals, and distributing them to our neighbors has impacted our community on every level — from the growers and the cooks to the volunteers delivering the kits and the families who receive them.
Since March 2020, City of Good has delivered nearly 100,000 meals and more than 4 tons of local produce to our neighbors. This community-driven work reminds us of the fabric of Boise: a caring and connected community.
It is this community that I am asking to join City of Good’s Monthly Giving Circle alongside my team. Together, we can create a more sustainable food system that benefits everyone in the city we call home.