Workforce training, teaching kitchen among ThriveOn King healthy food features
Milwaukee, Oct. 2, 2024 – The ThriveOn Collaboration has selected Kinship Community Food Center, which serves residents in the Riverwest and Harambee neighborhoods, to operate a signature café in the historic ThriveOn King building. In addition to bringing healthy food options to the dynamic community hub, the nonprofit partner will also bring to the table an innovative workforce training program for residents encountering barriers to employment.
“Kinship’s inclusion among the mosaic of partners contributing to the activation of ThriveOn King will help us meet two community-identified priorities at the same time,” said Greg Wesley, president and CEO of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. “In our initial visioning process and throughout our ongoing engagement, neighbors have consistently named access to nutritious food and access to jobs among their highest priorities. Thanks to this arrangement, the collaboration can fulfill another promise to Bronzeville area residents.”
ThriveOn King, 2153 N. Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, is an iconic former department store transformed for community, residential and commercial use through the work of the ThriveOn Collaboration. Led by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) and Royal Capital, the ThriveOn Collaboration invests in the health, educational, social and economic wellness of Milwaukee’s Halyard Park, Harambee and Brewers Hill neighborhoods and beyond.
“Access to healthy food is a key social determinant of health,” said John R. Raymond, Sr., MD, president and CEO of MCW. “Addressing social determinants of health is fundamental to improving health outcomes and a crucial priority for ThriveOn Collaboration. The collaboration with Kinship aligns like-minded institutions and goals for the community.”
Kinship brings culinary and training expertise
Known for its holistic and relational approach to addressing hunger, isolation and poverty in Milwaukee, Kinship is part of a movement that is rethinking food systems and related social supports. Their work centers around nourishment – addressing food security and wellness; belonging – fostering kinship and community engagement; and prosperity – creating economic stability and opportunity.
The café at ThriveOn King provides an opportunity to explore an emerging area of interest aligned with Kinship’s mission, that of a food-based social enterprise. Expected to open later this fall for breakfast and lunch, Monday through Friday, the café will offer a welcoming dining experience, providing neighborhood residents nourishment, fellowship, and an opportunity to grow and thrive together. Its scratch cooking offerings will include hot sandwiches, fresh and healthy bowls and salads, and grab-and-go options, as well as barista service.
Layered into the café operation will be Kinship’s established workforce training program that prioritizes social cohesion and healing and is designed to create employment opportunities for systems-impacted individuals. For participants enrolled in its program, Kinship provides paid work experience in culinary arts, urban agriculture and hospitality, while integrating social connection and personal development, to open pathways to steady employment and economic mobility. Among their many community partners in the program is another ThriveOn King tenant, JobsWork MKE, adding to the synergy being built in the community hub.
“We are committed to paving the way for career stability and personal healing, ensuring that everyone, including myself and all members of our workforce team, has the opportunity to grow and thrive together,” said Demonte Dismuke, workforce development manager for Kinship.
The Foundation is providing $350,000 in grant funding over two years to support the workforce training component of the ThriveOn King café as a long-term investment in cultivating individual stability and employment. In the immediate term, the café is expected to create 10-12 jobs and also serve as a preferred catering service for the building.
“I have been able to push and work through challenges and big changes in my life that I’ve wanted to make for a long time because I have the support and love that I needed around me to show me that I had worth and that I was strong enough to change,” said Hope Wernicke, a current workforce trainee.
Leveraging kitchen as a classroom
The café at ThriveOn King will also be shared as the home of the MCW Teaching Kitchen led by Stuart Wong MD, Professor of Medicine and Director of MCW Center for Disease Prevention Research.
"Community-engaged culinary medicine programming will provide medical students learning opportunities to understand how to make lifestyle discussions part of their routine visits with patients and to set a positive example by making healthy choices themselves,” said Dr. Wong.
An example of this programming is a pediatric obesity educational program in collaboration with FoodRight, a Milwaukee-based nonprofit; Kinship; and Children's Wisconsin in which MCW medical students learn to teach culinary skills and nutrition to students in Milwaukee schools.
ThriveOn King is home to the Foundation’s offices and convening spaces (fourth floor); MCW’s community engagement programs (second and third floors); and multiple community partners serving the community from their first floor locations including JobsWork MKE, Versiti on King and Malaika Early Learning Center. Community gathering and wellness spaces are in use with availability set to expand as the building opens fully to the public. Construction continues on the residential portion of the development, aiming for completion in 2025.