William Robb: “We wanted to provide a place that it didn’t matter what was in your pocket, you could still have healthy food that was delicious.”
William Robb spoke with the Missouri On Mic crew at the Kirksville Farmer’s Market in May. He spoke about his passion for foods fairness and his operate with a area non gain termed Get Root.
Missouri on Mic is an oral heritage and journalism undertaking documenting stories from close to the condition in its 200th calendar year.
Will Robb: I was looking for operate. I was operating in New York Metropolis, I had moved down to assist get treatment of my father. And then he handed and my mother passed.
And I was in doing work in Queens, with a application for the New York Horticultural Modern society.
And we ended up bringing gardens into correctional services. So I was performing on Rikers Island.
And our grant was ending.
So I was searching for operate. And I might gotten into what I connect with group based mostly meals procedure advancement.
I at first educated as a statistician and experienced a extensive vocation doing community well being figures.
But I received genuinely intrigued in community food stuff.
And anyway, I was searching for perform. And I noticed an govt director posture open at Get Root in Kirksville, Missouri.
I explained, ‘Oh my God, a possibility to be executive director for a minimal nonprofit which is going to adjust the full complete globe.’
Acquire Root’s mission was to alleviate hunger and boost health and fitness by serving healthy neighborhood superior good quality food stuff on a fork out-what-you-can foundation, which is really basic on the surface area, but I are likely to think at the technique stage, so it kind of expands out into this huge foods process associated mission.
But generally, we wanted to make, we are pursuing the design of One particular World, Most people Eats—the neighborhood cafe design there, and fundamentally building very good food stuff obtainable to any one, regardless of indicates.
So persons could walk in and buy a meal and pay back what they could afford to pay for.
And if they could afford to pay for practically nothing, there were being possibilities to volunteer.
And variety of powering that is this idea of like foods with dignity.
Why ought to there be soup kitchens, and like, you know, dusty cans of soup, and previous crackers for men and women that do not have implies?
I imagine of it as like, we do not need to have a two tier food program where, you know, the, the people today that can have can afford really wonderful meals, get that and then individuals that are food insecure or poor—I never know, the labels are often variety of a small peculiar to me, due to the fact everybody is truly just a individual.
Why need to there be soup kitchens, and like, you know, dusty cans of soup, and previous crackers for folks that do not have suggests?
It really doesn’t make sense.
So we preferred to deliver a put that it failed to issue what was in your pocket, you could even now have healthful food stuff that was delectable.
We are in the system of regrouping.
We were fortuitous to get connected with the First Presbyterian Church and they crafted an actually a reasonably nice kitchen area with the intention of giving a meal method. So we form of moved our stuff in there.
And last calendar year, we have been supplying neighborhood dinners.
We had been performing that very significantly regular and we served meals takeaway, which kind of broke the heart of a person of our chefs simply because you know, you just cannot do wonderful plating in a to-go container.
You have to assume about the meals a minor otherwise.
But however, we did supply fantastic food and you know, to all sorts of people today that showed up.
So we have been executing that and and now we’re, we’re chatting to a few of people about spaces that we can get into.
We might definitely like to reopen a brick and mortar location. Yeah.
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