Chefs serving restaurant-quality food in Asheville schools, low-income communities

ASHEVILLE - On a Tuesday morning, containers of baked ziti and roasted sweet potatoes are stacked on a table at Southside Kitchen. The meals are placed in individual bags and a fresh, plump peach is added to each one before they’re tied up and delivered to students in Asheville schools.

“We give them the experience that you’d go to a restaurant and have to pay $40 and $50 for,” said Kikkoman Shaw, executive chef for Equal Plates Project, a nonprofit that makes fresh, quality, nutritious meals for lower-income school children and others in the community. “It’s all healthy, good food for them.”

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Next, Shaw begins to beat a large container of eggs to prepare frittatas.

Equal Plates Project is the new name of We Give A Share. The change is to clearly convey the organization’s original and ongoing mission “to make all plates equal.” Fresh, local produce-based scratch-made meals are provided for charter schools and early learning centers, subsidized senior homes, agencies serving unhoused individuals, and residents in public housing.

“We’re trying to touch everybody in the community and let them have the experience that people who go downtown would get and spend all this money,” Shaw said. “For the community meals, they’re free. We want our people to get good, healthy food, too.”

Shaw and chef/production manager Kendrick Burton can relate to the population they’re serving, as they had limited access to fresh ingredients and weren’t exposed to many meal options when they were children.

“I never got to eat food like this when I was in school. Then, you grow up not eating a lot of stuff,” Burton said. “I got introduced to a lot of stuff late in life after I started taking a cooking class. If we can start early, maybe they’ll be a little different.”

In 2012, Burton and Shaw graduated from the Green Opportunities Kitchen Ready culinary program at Southside Kitchen, then worked downtown fine dining restaurants for several years. Shaw has worked at Bouchon and The Blackbird. Burton has worked at Benne on Eagle and Tupelo Honey.

In 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, they returned to Southside Kitchen to support Equal Plates Project.

“I worked downtown for several years, and I felt like this was a better suit and fit for me; to be able to feed the community of people that is in a situation that I come from. It’s a way we’re giving back,” Shaw said.

Farm-to-community

In 2020, the organization’s founding was motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The mission was to provide food to residents, as well as to support local farms by sourcing food with unsold harvests due to restaurants being closed.

Aaron and Anne Grier, who own Gaining Ground Farm, launched the initiative and rallied other farmers, producers, restaurateurs and other advocates for the cause.

“This project was born as a way to keep farms afloat,” said Madi Holtzman, managing director of Equal Plates Project. “Aaron basically pooled resources from supporters to keep purchasing from other farms so that their crops didn’t go to waste and they had a revenue stream. So, there was the farm side of the need in COVID and simultaneously people, especially elderly people living in public housing, had a heightened need for food access and food that was going to be brought to them.”

The original design allowed for “shares” of a local farm to be purchased that would be dedicated to growing food for the program. Now, the project invites supporters to donate to the overall operations, which continue to evolve and grow in the volume of meals distributed and in its reach through the community.

“We are excited by and committed to the work that our organization is doing,” Aaron Grier said. “Ensuring that everyone in our community has access to local agricultural bounties is what the kitchen is achieving through several new avenues.”

Gaining Ground Farm, Looking Glass Creamery, Sunburst Trout Farms, and Farm & Sparrow are some of the regional businesses sourced for produce, dairy, fish, eggs, meat, flour and other ingredients. The suppliers are paid fair, market-rate prices.

Holtzman wants to see the list grow.

“We’re working with a number of different kinds of producers and constantly working to get the proportion of local in each meal higher and higher,” she said.

Food for the future

Equal Plates Project differs from a food bank model, which supplies raw ingredients and pantry food for households.

Each week, they prepare hundreds of meals for children at local schools through the Equal Plates Project.

In 2020, more than 70,000 meals were reported to have been distributed. In 2021, more than 65,000 meals were prepared.

This summer, Equal Plates Project partnered with the Asheville Housing Authority to provide meals to residents in public housing. A goal is to extend the service year-round.

For now, the organization’s resources are dedicated to the school programs. The target for the 2022-23 school year is to provide 150,000 meals to students.

The organization’s leaders recognized how it can make on children’s health by offering healthy, quality alternatives, Holtzman said.

“We have shifted our focus to sending meals to school children because we feel like what we can offer uniquely as a nonprofit is not just a box of produce but a prepared meal,” she said. “We realize the need exists among community members who face barriers to preparing meals themselves.”

The group recently introduced a new one-for-one catering enterprise in which the clients may pay the value of an equal meal to go to a community member in need.

Catering is available for organizations, groups, meetings or nonprofits in Buncombe County and may be booked by emailing Holtzman at madi@equalplatesproject.org.

Increasing access and developing palates

Burton chops fresh beets as he reflects on what inspired him to leave the traditional restaurant setting for the nonprofit sector.

“I think this is more meaningful because you’re feeding kids, and kids are the future,” Burton said.

Burton often hears about the low-quality food options in schools from his daughter, he said. Equal Plates Project’s meals use high-quality ingredients, seasoned and cooked to restaurant quality.

“Everything is made from scratch. We don’t use canned food. … It’s better food,” Burton said.

It’s been “trial and error” learning what’s most popular, particularly for the children who may be trying the dishes and ingredients for the first time. Through feedback, they’ve learned that the students’ favorites include bolognese, burritos and mac-and-cheese, Shaw said.

“We’ve just got to change their palate because most of our kids are not used to the type of food we serve,” Shaw said. “But once they get it and get past the ‘ugh’ and taste it and get some flavor, then it’s different. And the food is cooked with love.”

Maria Juarez, a Woodfin resident, began volunteering with the organization after its inception.

“A lot of kids don’t want to eat this, don’t want to eat that, or they don’t have access to all fresh ingredients," she said. "For us, it’s great to be able to provide them with really good food, and I think it’s important to have the kids know what’s out there. Broaden their palates and as they grow up, they make healthier choices. They’re still eating things that they like but they’re not eating McDonald’s every day.”

Meals are prepared Monday through Friday.

In the beginning, the team had six regular members preparing nearly 500 meals a day. Their daily tasks include prepping, cooking, packaging and delivering the meals. Currently, the team operates with about four people, including volunteers, who prepare nearly 200 meals each day.

Juarez has volunteered with food banks in the past but has enjoyed having a direct connection to the community service through the Equal Plates Project.

“This is more satisfying to me because I feel like I know who this is all going to,” Juarez said. “It’s a great organization. They do such great work for the community. It’s important, especially for the schools... I’m very grateful to have found this."

Financial support, community partners and volunteers are ongoing needs for the nonprofit to continue to grow.

Volunteers do not need cooking experience. Tasks range from cutting vegetables to bagging meals to cleaning kitchen stations.

To volunteer, visit equalplatesproject.org.

Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at tkennell@citizentimes.com or follow her on Twitter/Instagram @PrincessOfPage. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times. 

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Chefs, nonprofit improving food access, quality for Asheville students