Today we’d like to introduce you to Community Plate Initiative. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Community Plate Initiative has become a collection of experiences since September of 2020. We started out as a few friends wanting to do something to help our neighbors in need during the time of a global pandemic, cooking out of The Big Kitchen in South Park on Wednesdays. As we realized the need for food assistance was much greater than we expected, we started to expand our team and search for a space that would better fit our needs. We were so fortunate to be able to find and partner with God’s Extended Hand, a church and soup kitchen in Downtown San Diego, who allowed us to use their kitchen space to prepare our weekly meals. We worked out of their facilities until August of 2021 when they were unfortunately shut down by the city. Immediately following, we worked out of our homes and our own pockets and began the search for a new cooking location. Ultimately we landed at Innovations City in National City, a media production and investment company who invest in women and minority entrepreneurs. We are now working to continue expanding our reach and add new members to our leadership team.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As much as we’d like to say it’s been a smooth road, we’ve definitely been through a lot. We had to learn how to use people for their individual qualities, work as a team rather than just a group of friends. We’ve also had to navigate the inner workings of a community organization and create a viable business model. Although we have the plans in motion, things have been moving slowly but surely. Currently, our biggest struggle is the funding for our weekly meals. Additionally, we have had trouble finding passionate members to contribute to this essential project committed to helping our houseless neighbors.
As time progresses, we are continuously working to expand our team, our organization’s brand awareness, and our funds to be able to provide the best service possible. While we don’t know what the future may hold, we do know that we’ll get through any other obstacle we might face by sticking together.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Our work consists of offering a variety of different levels of support to those experiencing homelessness in San Diego. First and foremost, we are a food assistance organization working to dismantle the views that society holds on food accessibility. We serve freshly made meals every week handpicked by our food prep team to distribute to the community of Downtown San Diego. We strive to showcase that lending a helping hand to your neighbors in need is absolutely accessible and can be done even at the smallest of scales by including all of our recipes and how we prepare them on our website. Aside from providing our weekly meals, we also collect and distribute other necessary items that can offer support to houseless folks. Items such as gently used or new clothes, sanitation items such as hand sanitizer, wipes, and toiletries as well as items that may ease the harsh realities of living on the street such as tents, blankets, tarps, and more. Along with providing tangible assistance, Community Plate Initiative makes sure to take the time to converse with every person we serve on a weekly basis, ensuring that we’re fostering beautiful relationships and connecting on a much deeper level. We encourage everyone reading this to remember that our houseless neighbors deserve the same respect, love, and kindness that you would show to anyone.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
We are constantly looking for volunteers to help us distribute our weekly meals as well as members to tackle leadership roles in a non-profit organization (a certification which we are currently in the process of attaining). In reality, the money collected would be used for ingredients and our events which are used to drive greater community interest and donations. If we don’t use it one week’s meal, we will definitely use it for the next. Another area we could use support in is our visibility to the larger San Diego community. We are well known in the communities which we serve, but our goal is to expand to new neighborhoods as we would like to establish auxiliary work-crews and leadership for those particular teams.
If you or someone you know is interested in joining our team or collabing with us, email us at communityplateinitiative@gmail.com or send us a DM at @communityplateinitiative on Instagram.
Pricing:
- Donations for our weekly distributions are always encouraged. Our average weekly meal cost is around $150.
Contact Info:
- Email: communityplateinitiative@gmail.com
- Website: https://communityplates.wixsite.com/website
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/communityplateinitiative/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/communityplates
Image Credits
Mia Ballesteros
