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Dare to Care Food Bank broke ground today, on its new Dare to Care Community Kitchen in partnership with the Novak Family Foundation. The new Kitchen will be located at the site of a former grocery store at 28th and Virginia Streets in Louisville’s Parkland neighborhood. Opening in April 2020, the new Kitchen will triple the size of Dare to Care’s current kitchen, expanding capacity for existing and new programs to serve Kentuckiana’s 170,000 food insecure residents.
More than a new building, the Community Kitchen ushers in a new era of fighting hunger in the community according to Brian Riendeau, Dare to Care Executive Director.
“Since our founding 50 years ago, Dare to Care has grown and evolved to meet the changing needs of our hungry neighbors. This expanded capacity will equip us to launch innovative new programming designed to meet community needs in the next decade and beyond.”
To fund construction of the new facility, Dare to Care is launching a $7.1 Million capital campaign. The Novak Family Foundation continued its deep support of Dare to Care’s mission by providing the lead gift for the new facility.
“We believe that no person should ever go to bed hungry because of lack of access to food” Said David Novak, “We are honored to partner with such a forward-thinking organization like Dare to Care Food Bank. The new facility allows us to support the changing food insecurity needs of our community in new and expansive ways”
Yum! Brands, a longtime supporter of Dare to Care, is also stepping up to support the expansion.
“Dare to Care’s work around hunger relief is truly transforming people’s lives for the better, and Yum! Brands is honored to support their mission with this $1 million gift,” said Yum! Brands Chief Executive Officer Greg Creed. “In Yum!’s long history with Dare to Care, our partnership has always been focused on giving back to our hometown, helping those in need and making Louisville and the surrounding communities a great place for our local employees and their families. We’re excited to see how the new Dare to Care Community Kitchen will continue to achieve this goal.”
Together, Yum! Brands and its Louisville-based employees have contributed more than $16 million over 17 years to the Dare to Care Food Bank to end hunger in the Kentucky/Indiana region.
Louisville Metro Government owns the building and will enter into a long-term lease with Dare to Care.
“Dare to Care is a critical partner in the fight to end hunger in Louisville, and we are excited to partner with them on this expansion, which will spur innovative thinking around how to increase access to affordable and healthy food,” said Mayor Greg Fischer. “This project will breathe new life into this commercial node in the Parkland neighborhood, attracting other retail and services to the area.”
Plans for the new facility include new programming, moving several Dare to Care staff from its Fern Valley main distribution facility, and collaborating with Catholic Charities’ Common Table job training program, providing it with a more extensive curriculum and greater enrollment capacity. Dare to Care’s new programming includes growing Kids Cafe afterschool sites, creating meals in various formats for senior citizens, processing produce and recovered food to make it easier to use and lengthen its shelf life, expanding the reach of its nutrition education programming, and providing a platform for the creation of programs to meet future needs.
Construction is beginning at the new site and is expected to be completed in April 2020.
For more information and to learn how to join in the capital campaign, visit https://daretocare.org/learn-more/community-kitchen/.
Photo: Louisville Metro Council
Dare to Care is working with Metro Louisville to relocate its production kitchen operations to the site of the former Parkland Grocery, 1200 South 28th Street. At its current location, Dare to Care produces about 1,200 suppers each workday that are delivered to 34 afterschool sites in the community. The relocation would allow an expansion of this meal production and open the potential for other meal services, including additional Kids Café meals and congregate meal services for senior adults.
The site, owned by Metro Government, has now been vacant for several years but at one time was the location of the Parkland neighborhood’s closest grocery store.
“I want to make sure that everyone in the Parkland area has an opportunity to learn more about this plan,” says Councilwoman Jessica Green (D-1). “This is an opportunity to take an abandoned building and turn it into an asset to the neighborhood.”
In addition to its meal production services, Dare to Care would like to move its administrative and fundraising offices from its main distribution facility on Fern Valley Road to the Parkland Grocery. Other plans for the building include operating a Culinary Skills Job Training program in collaboration with Catholic Charities of Louisville, creating office space for the Metro Police Public Integrity Unit so that it can move from the former Parkland Library into the Parkland Grocery freeing the library for possible future reopening as a Louisville Free Public Library. Shell space for a future retail food market is also in the plan.
To discuss Dare to Care’s plans and get residents’ input, Councilwoman Green is hosting a neighborhood meeting on Thursday, October 18, at 6 pm, at the Baptist Fellowship Center, 1351 Catalpa Street. Brian Riendeau, Dare to Care Executive Director, will be at the meeting to detail the plan, listen to comments, and answer questions. Supper will be provided by Dare to Care.
“I encourage everyone to come out and ask questions about this plan and if you have some additional ideas let us know,” says Green.
Dare to Care Food Bank is a local nonprofit agency with a mission to lead the community to feed the hungry and conquer the cycle of need. In the past twelve months, Dare to Care distributed food for over 20 million meals to eight Kentucky and five Indiana counties. Dare to Care, through its Community Kitchen, serves 34 Kids Cafes in neighborhood afterschool locations and operates Backpack Buddy weekend nutrition programs in 38 Kentuckiana elementary schools. Learn more at www.daretocare.org.
