A tasty meal regardless of ability to pay. Free food, free people.

The People’s Kitchen, formed in 2015, was originally an offshoot organization of the Vermont Worker’s Center designed to feed activists at events and protests related to organized labor.

When the Covid-19 Pandemic hit, group organizers pivoted to a food distribution model to feed vulnerable members of the community during the incredibly uncertain time. This first manifested as a hot meal by donation distribution model, then pivoted to a targeted community grocery distribution in the ethnically diverse South Meadow neighborhood in Burlington’s South End.

This weekly distribution, now more than five years running, has provided thousands of free meals to low-income families, particularly within the neighborhood’s Muslim community (as the food is all halal). Beyond just hot cooked meals, the People’s Kitchen has collected free groceries and pantry goods from the local grocery stores and food shelves, all with the intent to get them into the hands (and mouths) of people in need.

The grocery distribution also spawned the People’s Farmstand, a now free-standing organization based in the Intervale focused on growing and distributing fresh produce free of charge. For several years, the two groups have consistently tabled together in South Meadow in a way that community members can count on.