Text-based HelpKitchen connects Tacomans with 5,000 free meals a week

Chef Nyesha Jones was raised minutes from where her first restaurant, Garden’s Gourmet Salads, now stands, in a small shopping plaza on 72nd Street in Tacoma’s South End. In developing the health-focused concept, she strived to provide her neighborhood with options beyond fast-food and — delicious though they may be — tacos.

Since November, a pandemic-born nonprofit called HelpKitchen has paid Jones to serve those same salads and wraps — free of charge and ordered via text message — to hundreds of people who have struggled to put food on the table.

Today 15 Tacoma restaurants in several ZIP codes serve some 5,000 meals every week, up from just 300 since launching here last September.

HelpKitchen was founded in San Francisco last March by a group of anonymous philanthropists, some of whom are restaurant owners themselves, according to Tacoma program manager Jen Robbins. She described its mission, from those first chaotic days of the COVID-19 pandemic, as “a dual-pronged effort to keep restaurants open and people on staff, to feed people who were suddenly out of work. The idea quickly expanded beyond the Bay Area to Detroit, Michigan, last summer, followed by Tacoma and recently Aurora, Colorado, and proponents believe it has the power to play an integral role in alleviating hunger in America.

So how did it arrive here, in the South Sound — and not Seattle?

The multi-faceted downtown venue Alma Mater had, previous to the onset of the pandemic, been talking with the Seattle-based chapter of World Central Kitchen, the food relief nonprofit for which chef and activist José Andrés was nominated to the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.

“They were not really interested in Tacoma,” said Lisa Fruichantie, Alma Mater’s executive director.

The organization has been active in supporting local efforts to combat homelessness and hunger, including cooking regular meals for the Beacon Youth Shelter and the Rainbow Center. According to Nourish Pierce County, about 7 percent of the population — or more than 65,000 people — rely on food banks, a number that has about doubled amid the pandemic.

Through these connections, Fruichantie learned of HelpKitchen and met with the founders over Zoom. She immediately appreciated its “dignity-based” approach that didn’t prod and instead said, “Keep it really simple and say, ‘If you need a meal, here you go.’”

To launch in a new city, it requires at least five participating restaurants located in at least two different ZIP codes. Alma Mater’s The Patio was, naturally, on board, and Robbins secured four others to start: VK Viet Kitchen, Doyle’s Public House, Wooden City and 3uilt at 7 Seas Brewing.

In addition to their American and Vietnamese offerings, the current mix of restaurants provides Thai, Italian, Mediterranean and Hawaiian food in several neighborhoods.

That diversity is key to what differentiates HelpKitchen from food pantries, or the ingredient supply dollars from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: fully cooked meals prepared in licensed kitchens by trained chefs.

“If you’re living out of your car, how can you cook at all?” asked Fruichantie. “We talk about mental health all the time, but we don’t look at how food nourishes our mind as well as our soul.”

A restaurant meal diversifies diets, added Robbins, who handles restaurant outreach and user communication, and the text-based system “preserves dignity” by offering “a takeaway meal like anyone’s takeaway meal.”

“Being a parent who can bring takeout meals home to your kids is a huge boost,” she said. It’s both a treat and an everyday opportunity for families that might not usually have the means to connect over a thoughtfully prepared meal.

Fruichantie said her relationships from her days as a social worker helped get the word out through other organizations that regularly touch people looking for food resources. Along with Nourish, other food banks, shelters and school districts have been instrumental in sharing flyers to promote HelpKitchen as an alternative.

Text HelpKitchen, get a meal

To access the program, customers simply text “find a meal” to a local number. An automated reply lists three nearby restaurants and timeframes. They choose one, receive a confirmation text, and head to that eatery the next day to pick up their food — just like any other customer retrieving their takeout order.

“If you need to eat, we’re going to feed you,” said Robbins. “It’s so refreshing. We don’t have to jump through hoops, intrusive questions.”

As a first-time texter, the system asks only for customers’ first name, the number of people in their family and their ZIP code. For restaurants, the process mirrors other online ordering platforms while allowing flexibility in when and to what extent they participate.

Jones said she has squeezed the HelpKitchen meals into the shop’s post-lunch and pre-dinner lull from 2-6 p.m., giving employees work during a typically slow part of the day. Without orders rolling in, she might have to send them home.

“There’s already somebody there. We have the food prepped. It’s not an inconvenience,” she said.

The roughly $7 per meal reimbursement, paid out weekly, is also helpful, she added, but it’s not why she joined the effort.

“Aside from it potentially helping us and keeping employees on, I also thought it was an amazing idea,” said Jones. “A lot of people who are wealthier than most just don’t do anything with their money, or they’re all about self. I think it’s so amazingly crazy that they’re helping people less fortunate.”

At Rhein Haus, another participating restaurant, chef Kelly Wilson said the opportunity was two-fold.

“We’re realizing we have the bandwidth to do it, and seeing we’re just in a unique position to be able to offer that to the community and not necessarily worry about the finances,” he told The News Tribune in March.

For several weeks last winter, when indoor dining was off-limits in Washington state and Rhein Haus was closed to the public, he flew solo, cooking only for HelpKitchen. He fashioned a makeshift station in the entryway to serve guests — up to 250 meals a week over five days — directly from that post, learning the names and orders of regulars. (HelpKitchen allows customers to order through the system every three days, equating to about two times a week.)

“As a chef,” he said, “to be able to share that as part of my gift — it goes beyond gratitude and compassion.”

On the practical side, he added, “Having the reimbursements come through actually kept me employed.”

A hunger solution with legs?

HelpKitchen began amid crisis, but those involved believe it has the framework to last beyond the current moment.

“It’s customizable in real time,” said Fruichantie. “Every restaurant has an ebb and flow to their service. Utilizing your least busiest hours to keep your staff working, preparing food, and shifting toward a HelpKitchen program at that time — you’re not getting bombarded.”

The program — currently funded through at least the end of the year — could take in five more restaurants, she said, based not on funding but rather Robbins’ time in managing, alone, 20 different businesses and thousands of users on a new and evolving technology platform.

In Aurora, for instance, the city was able to allocate some CARES Act funding. In Tacoma, the team is seeking a mix of local government support, large private and smaller individual donations.

“We are taking a little breath and looking at it sustainably because we know that when COVID is over and things start to open up again, we realize that hunger isn’t going away,” said Robbins. “We aren’t going to have magically solved the issue of hunger in Tacoma or anywhere.”

Those involved see HelpKitchen’s very existence in this mid-sized Washington city — not in Seattle or Chicago or Los Angeles — as evidence of its ability to “scale up.”

“It just shows the resources that Tacoma has, and the possibility of more potential and growth,” said Wilson at Rhein Haus. “It’s more of a community. It’s not just hustle and bustle.”

Jones of Garden’s Gourmet likewise recognizes that power.

“What’s so different about us, as well as what’s so different about the program, is that they didn’t go to McDonald’s or fast-food restaurants — they went straight to small business,” she said. “I’m very excited that we are able to offer these healthier options and meals to people who maybe didn’t know about us or maybe didn’t have the money for it. Going out, even if it’s to McDonald’s, is a luxury for some people.”

HelpKitchen Tacoma

▪ For a meal: text 253-215-8101

▪ To participate as a restaurant: email helpkitchen@almamatertacoma.com

▪ To donate to the organization: visit helpkitchen.org