Real Good Kitchen provides several hundred hot meals for residents of its East Knoxville neighborhood
It’s a special time of the year when looking out for others, particularly those less fortunate, is so important, and one of the entrepreneurs whose efforts have been chronicled in teknovation.biz took it to a new level yesterday.
Anyone who is a friend or maybe just an acquaintance of Bailey Foster with Real Good Kitchen (RGK) knows that she is driven by her passion for doing that sort of good. After all, RGK is organized as a public benefit corporation.
Yesterday afternoon, she took that holiday spirit to a new level, organizing an event that used RGK’s shared kitchen facility on Magnolia Avenue to provide several hundred hot meals for those in the start-up’s East Knoxville neighborhood. The sign says it all. Foster and volunteers she recruited hosted a “Community Holiday Meal” from 3 to 5 p.m. yesterday where East Knoxville residents could stop and secure some hot food.
Bailey (pictured here preparing yesterday) first shared her vision for the facility in this October 2018 teknovation.biz article and officially opened in January of this year. RGK has 24 small businesses that utilize the 2,500 square foot licensed commercial kitchen on a round-the-clock basis. In the 2018 article, Bailey told us her model for RGK was La Cocina in San Francisco, but tailored to the Knoxville market. That organization focuses primarily on women of color and from immigrant communities. La Cocina helps these low income food entrepreneurs formalize and grow their businesses by providing affordable commercial kitchen space, industry-specific technical assistance, and access to market opportunities. The end result is helping these entrepreneurs achieve financial security.
Pictured here from yesterday morning are bags awaiting the food in RGK’s prep area.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Photos courtesy of John Bruck.)
