Dorchester-based Commonwealth Kitchen, a nonprofit food and business incubator, reopens today after two weeks of being shut down to ramp up emergency food production efforts.
Along with one of its member companies, FreshFood Generation, Commonwealth Kitchen will deliver fully prepared meals to feed more than 200 families at the Dimock Community Health Center in Boston, later this week.
Jen Faigel, executive director of Commonwealth Kitchen, told BostInno that the kitchen's production systems will partially resume next week.
"We expect to re-open the kitchen to our members on a limited basis starting next week. We're focused first on getting the emergency food response work set up and running," Faigel said.
Commonwealth Kitchen operates not only as a food accelerator, but also an economic development organization focused on asset building and wealth creation for low-income women, immigrants and people of color. Founded in 2009, the organization has helped kickstart over 200 food businesses, counting local favorites like Clover Food Lab, Roxy’s Grilled Cheese and Alex's Ugly Sauce among its alumni companies.
The organization is one of the many Boston-area businesses that have been negatively impacted due to the disruption caused by COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
"We provide food for colleges and hospitals, and probably 90 percent of that work dried up overnight," Faigel said. "Easily 100 businesses are in various stages of free fall, not knowing if they’re going to ever come back."
As the number of tested and confirmed cases rise in Massachusetts, (12,500 cases as of Monday morning), Gov. Charlie Baker has extended the non-essential business closures until May 4.
Commonwealth Kitchen, however, is an essential business. And Faigel has a variety of safety concerns in meeting the demand for emergency meals.
"How do you keep the people safe? We had to install the system overnight to check temperature of staff, to think about employee shifts," Faigel said. "We are needing to figure out how to run a production line with people six feet apart."
With new kitchen protocols, Faigel is getting ready to prepare and deliver emergency meals to Dimock Community Health Center, Friends of the Children Boston and some senior centers.
This, by no means, implies that the Kitchen is back to business as usual. While juggling to serve those in need of food, Faigel is also trying to think about options to keep the organization afloat.
"This is devastating for us," Faigel said. "Half of my budget went out the window, I have no idea if they will be able to stand back on their feet."
As a combative measure, Faigel said that the Kitchen might think about pivoting its model, but believes that being a nonprofit might be a silver lining.
"I believe money will come as we do this work, but we don't know from where and when," Faigel said. "But our business model is going to be upside down while we are in recovery mode."
Faigel has some ideas for the pivot, though: Counseling its member companies on debt, making a pivot to emergency food and eventually grab-and-go ethnic food. Even so, Faigel retains some optimism.
"We don’t know how temporary is temporary," Faigel said. "But this is a chance to reimagine what a regional food system should look like."
