HOW PHILADELPHIA APPROACHES PREPARATION AND DISTRIBUTION

A number of existing nonprofit, for-profit, and community efforts provide food processing, preparation, and distribution infrastructure in Philadelphia. However, there are gaps in the system. A broader strategic effort could explore the potential to scale these operations, while also addressing challenges like access to affordable space, equipment, vehicles, and licensing.

On the preparation front, community kitchens—clean, commercially licensed facilities available for rent by food businesses who share the space and equipment— are a core and growing piece of infrastructure for processing food on a smaller scale. However, such rentals can be cost-prohibitive for emerging food businesses if sliding-scale pricing or windows of free usage time are not available. The following are a few examples of this type of preparation space in Philadelphia:

> Philabundance’s commercial kitchen program has offered culinary and life skills training to over 900 people since 2000. The organization opened its new permanent facility, the Philabundance Community Kitchen,52 in North Philadelphia in 2020. The 16-week program is targeted at low- to no-income adults, and it provides ongoing services for up to two years to help graduates secure employment. Graduates complete the program with a Manager’s ServSafe Food Handler’s Certificate and eight college credits that are transferable to the Community College of Philadelphia towards a certificate or Associates in Culinary Arts.

> The Dorrance H. Hamilton Center for Culinary Enterprises,53 opened in 2012 by the Enterprise Center in West Philadelphia, offers membership access to commercial kitchen space for established and start-up food businesses and processors. The center also offers workshops and events, as well as business support services, including feasibility studies, access to capital, training, and more. It includes three eateries that are open to the public and staffed by clients of the center.

Affordable access to certified commercial kitchenspacecancreateopportunitiesforfood entrepreneursandcottageindustry.

> The People’s Kitchen in South Philadelphia produces chef-prepared meals for free distribution to elderly, undocumented and low-income residents and a network of nonprofits that serve food-insecure residents. Food is sourced from community gardens across South Philadelphia, as well as donated and purchased. Started in 2020 by chefs Aziza Young, Cristina Martínez, and Ben Miller (the latter two from the restaurant South Philly Barbacoa), the People’s Kitchen operates out of Martínez and Miller’s El Compadre restaurant. Founded in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to address a crisis of food insecurity, it has expanded to now offer commercial kitchen space for rent.54

> Drexel Food Lab (DFL), founded in 2014, designs food products that aim to improve health, the environment, and the economy. The Lab assists local food businesses, entrepreneurs, and restaurants in research and product development to develop new food products, and introduce new products to market. In 2021, DFL teamed up with the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH) to develop the Good Food Accelerator Program, designed to offer small businesses assistance in accelerating their “good food” products to market. PDPH and DFL defined “Good Food” as “products [that] support health, sustainability, fair labor practices, economic investment, and support communities most negatively impacted by the food system.” Participants in the program included Authentic Ethnic Cuisine, TRIBU, Saté Kampar, and Honeysuckle Projects.55