Halifax kitchen and café gives food to people in need no matter what

A N.S. business provides affordable, chef-prepared food for everyone.

The Upward Kitchen and Café was created to ensure everyone in Halifax’s north end has access to affordable and healthy food.

“We opened this place in February of this year as an answer to a couple of things. The most important one is food insecurity,” said Mark Brand, owner of the café. “Now we hear that be thrown around all the time. But what it means for me – I’ve been working in this field for almost 20 years now – is access to good, nutritious, healthy food that’s not going to hurt you. And so we’ve got a team of now almost 25 chefs that work in our various spots creating scratch-made meals.

“Our frozen meals are seven bucks, for hot meal every day is five. It’s sandwiches, we bake our breads, etc., and what we’ve done is form partnerships with everybody around the local community from the Salvation Army, the North End Community Health Center across the street. The Preston Area Food Network, we fed all summer long. Our goal is to try and use our skillsets to relieve as much of this food insecurity as possible.”

For chefs like Kumud Singh, a business like this was the draw.

“It’s been a passion for me to get into food services again. I left the dental world to be a part of food services, and the only way I wanted to be a part was in a compassionate, caring and meaningful way,” she said. “I heard about this organization 10 years ago out west through a friend that helped Mark. And then when I heard they were coming here, I made it my mission to be here. And it happened.

“I started volunteering, and then suddenly, the school program went crazy. They hired me. And then I waited and waited and waited until the Nook was ready. And we’re here.”

Giving back to the school system is part of what they do, and they are implementing farms to grow their own food.

“Food security is sovereignty. So how do people grow and access food at their own agency?” said Brand. “We’re launching Upward Farms. We have a three-acre plot with my dear friend over on the Dartmouth side. And this guy just sort of showed up into our lives and he was like, ‘How can I be helpful?’ And I was like, ‘Do you have any extra land?’ He said, ‘You know, I do.’

“And right now we’re building 30 beautiful planter boxes on it to create our own food so that we can put it into our own meals. We’re building that out with our partners at Farm Credit Canada to do six greenhouses.”

In addition to the option to grow food, the Token Project is at the heart of the kitchen.

“Lots of people want to help those who are struggling, but also people who are just straight up food insecure or others who are food budgeting. And so, this was created as a really simple way to access and interaction,” said Brand. “So, if somebody says to you, ‘I’m really hungry, could you help me out?’ You’re like, ‘Yes, I absolutely can.’ You hand this to them. In 2013 when I launched it, my idea was if it went really well, three or four people would have an interaction or a conversation with people who were unhoused and make them feel a lot less isolated. They could connect, maybe connect further after that for some more assistance, but then somebody would then feel a place of inclusion. Somewhere that they could go where they are welcome with radical hospitality. People are excited to see them and then they are served but not waiting on a line. They’re accessing a space the exact same as anybody else.

“This is one of those spaces. For one of these tokens, they can get one of our 18-to-20 frozen meals. They grab a coffee, an espresso, one of our fresh sandwiches, one of our baked goods, whatever they want.”

People can purchase tokens at the café or online and take them hand out or leave them at Upward Kitchen.

“It allows all our neighbors, our customers, all the people around that support us, to give back to the people that are in our community that might not have that food security,” said Singh. “It’s a really easy, just indiscriminate way you can give back. And you can leave it with me. It’s in a bank that gets used daily. I’ve noticed from the beginning of that February, we were cashing in about 20 tokens. Now we’re up to about 40 tokens a day, and that’s feasible because of the support we get from the community.

“So, somebody would buy a coffee, buy a token and leave it with me. And that word of mouth through the community of people that are in need know where their revenue, where their sources are. And that’s us. No one here will ever get it refused a meal if they don’t have a token, because I have a bank that is provided by everybody in our neighborhood. It’s such a beautiful program and a beautiful way to make sure that everybody is getting good quality food as well.”

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