As Milwaukee nonprofit Kinship Community Food Center reaches maximum capacity at its existing locations, the organization is planning a new headquarters and community center in the city’s Harambee neighborhood.
Kinship, which operates a food pantry, community meal program and other services, is planning a new building that would include a free “public market,” a commercial kitchen, administrative offices, a community room, a greenhouse and food storage.
The L-shaped, two-story, 28,000-square-foot building would be built on a one-acre site at 421 E. Locust St.
The nonprofit intends to purchase the site from the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee (HACM). The grass lot is currently excess space at the northern edge of Holton Terrace, a nine-story, 120-unit public housing building at 2825 N. Holton St.
“A majority of the folks that shop with us live within one or two square miles of the site,” said Vincent Noth, executive director of Kinship. “This is an ideal, dream location for us to expand our work.”
Kinship won rezoning approval for the project from the Milwaukee Plan Commission this week despite some neighbor concerns about the loss of green space in the neighborhood.
HACM intends to sell the property for $590,000, its appraised value. So far, Kinship has raised about $1.5 million from anonymous donors for the project and plans to seek further donations, but Noth said the organization is financially stable and has enough reserves to also support the project with bank loans.
About 16,000 people receive food from Kinship yearly, according to Noth, and the organization helped about 90 households find housing last year as well. The organization also grows about 15,000 pounds of produce at a facility on Port Washington Road
“We see food as an entry point, as opposed to the end point of what we do,” Noth said. “Kinship is part of a growing movement of other drop-in meal centers that really say, ‘What if, through dynamic food experience, we can focus on other ends beyond just food insecurity. Our three pillars are about addressing food insecurity, but also addressing social isolation and poverty.”
Kinship’s new facility would create one site for its food center programs, now at 924 E. Clarke St., and administrative offices, at 2610 N. King Drive, both of which are reaching maximum capacity as the organization grows, Noth said.
The center, formerly known as the Riverwest Food Pantry, was established in the 1970s and, in 2013, became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to expand its mission, according to its website. In 2022, it was renamed the Kinship Community Food Center.
Kinship was recently announced as the operator of the cafe space inside ThriveOn King.
