Royalty Salva and Amanda Fahrendorf are shown in the Kinship Café, an extension of the Kinship Community Food Center. (Photo by PrincessSafiya Byers)
By PrincessSafiya Byers
This story was originally published by Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, where you can find other stories reporting on fifteen city neighborhoods in Milwaukee. Visit milwaukeenns.org.
Royalty Salva started volunteering at the Kinship Community Food Center in June 2024.
Now she is one of several people working in its Kinship Café as a result of the group’s workforce program.
The Kinship Community Food Center is a food bank that focuses on building relationships and lifting up people by using food as an entry point.
“At the food center, people are interacting with people they never would otherwise,” said Amanda Fahrendorf, senior communication associate with the Kinship Community Food Center. “The goal is for shoppers and volunteers to develop a relationship.”
The cafe, at 2153 N. Martin Luther King Drive, is an extension of the center’s mission of providing healthy food and serving as a training ground for people reentering the workforce.
It also has become a hub for people to grab food and connect.
Kinship Community Food Center
It all starts at the food center, formerly the Riverwest Food Pantry.
In addition to being a food bank and cafe, the Kinship Community runs an urban farm, hosts community meals, does education surrounding systemic barriers to food and has an internship and workforce development program.
Salva, 33, went to the food center to volunteer.
A few months later she was joining the center’s workforce development program.
“One day I was telling someone about my struggles to get a job, and they offered me this opportunity,” Salva said. “Everything about this job has been different from anywhere else I’ve worked.”
Fahrendorf said that is how the center is intended to run.
“Every one of our programs is built from listening to the people we are serving and working with,” she said. “It comes from the vision of our fearless leader, Vincent Noth. He has a vision that people are stronger together and there is a world where everyone is nourished, everyone feels like they belong and everyone can prosper.”
The work of the food center and the cafe is to embody that message.
The cafe
The Kinship Café is on the first floor of the ThriveOn King building and is staffed by people in Kinship’s healing-based workforce development program.
The program is amazing even when it’s hard, Salva said.
“They are kind of in my business,” she said. “But in my business to make sure my business is making me happy. It’s like getting paid for therapy.”
According to Cydney Key, senior director of ThriveOn King’s guest experience and strategic partnerships, the cafe has been a perfect match.
ThriveOn wanted something that aligned with its mission as far as economic opportunity, health, wellness and social cohesion, Key said.
“The Kinship Café has been a phenomenal partner,” she said. “They run the daily operations of the cafe and set the tone for the space.”
For more information
To learn more about the Kinship Café you can visit its website or stop in and grab a bite to eat.