NourishKC, a community kitchen in Kansas City, is transforming compassion into action across the metro through nutrition education, daily hot meals, and a daily fresh grocery pantry program.
With reduced SNAP benefits and the arrival of the holiday season, Chef Shanita McAfee-Bryant and her team are trying to adapt quickly to a surge of food needs. They’re monitoring daily attendance rises, keeping up with what items are highest in demand, and ensuring that everyone, regardless of circumstance, has access to food as a basic right.
Beyond meeting immediate needs, NourishKC is emphasizing dignity and respect by serving meals in a restaurant-like setting where every guest is welcomed, valued, and fed with care.
“It provides a little bit more connection, dignity, respect, all of those things,” McAfee-Bryant said. “It's much nicer to get sat down and be acknowledged, particularly for a lot of our people who are unhoused, and they're a bit of the invisible community.”
“Most spend most of their day being told to leave, get out of here, go over there, or being treated as a nuisance, where, in this environment… you get spoken to and you get treated with a sense of respect.”
NourishKC is a project of the nonprofit The Prospect KC. You can learn about them and donate here.
- Shanita McAfee-Bryant, executive director, founder and chef, NourishKC
