Kinship Community Food Center

What Kinship Community Food Center does

Kinship Community Food Center, operating as Kinship-MKE Inc (EIN 46-3422131), is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 1979 and based in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood. It addresses food insecurity, social isolation, and crisis-level economic instability through an interlocking portfolio of programs: Shop (a fresh food market with cooking demonstrations and a food bar), Grow (an urban hoop-house organic vegetable farm producing roughly 20,000 lbs of produce annually), Feast (collaborative community meals), Stride (one-on-one crisis mentoring that protected 94 families from eviction in 2024), Workforce (paid work-experience and employment readiness), Form (training in spiritual formation and civic action), a residential Mission Internship Year that brings in 7 young adults annually for Catholic formation and service, and the Kinship Café & Catering service. The organization served 14,700 community meals in 2024 and is supported by 5,000+ annual volunteers, with roughly 1,000 of those volunteers also being program participants — a deliberate "Community of Generosity" design in which giving and receiving are bidirectional.

The underlying "technology" is predominantly physical and relational rather than software-driven: an urban hoop-house farm using organic growing methods, a fixed food-distribution site at 924 E Clarke Street (Tuesday 4–6 PM, Saturday 8:30–10:30 AM), and a Squarespace-hosted web presence. The reported outcomes are strong on community-integration dimensions — 93% of shoppers feel accepted, 89% report cooking with more fresh produce, and 95% know they can access support — suggesting the asset base is social capital and a deeply embedded neighborhood network rather than proprietary technology.

The revenue model is a hybrid of charitable contributions and earned income. Individual donors fund operations through the P.L.A.N.T. (People Lifted And Neighborhoods Thriving) tiered monthly giving program with six levels from $10 (Seeds) to $250 (Fruit) tied to specific programmatic outcomes. A second stream, the Kinship Café & Catering service, generates transactional revenue while extending the community-building mission. GTM motion is community-led: volunteer recruitment, the mission-year residential program, and direct in-person engagement drive both supply of labor and demand for services within a single Milwaukee geography; no parent company, M&A, external funding round, or geographic expansion is evidenced.

Name

Kinship Community Food Center

Legal name

Kinship-MKE Inc

Website

https://kinshipmke.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1979

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Kinship Community Food Center is a Milwaukee-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit, founded 1979, that operates an integrated set of food access, urban farming, crisis mentoring, workforce, and community-meal programs for Riverwest neighborhood residents, funded by individual donations, a tiered monthly giving program, and café/catering revenue.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Food Assistance Services

NAICS

Community Food Services (624210), Community Food and Housing, and Emergency and Other Relief Services (6242)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300), Agricultural Services (700)

akta.pro primary industry

Food Assistance & Food Banks (BPAGAEAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Community-Owned / Nonprofit Grocery Stores (CRAHALAB), Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems (BPAGAGAI)

Keywords

• Community food services
• Food insecurity support
• Urban agriculture program
• Crisis assistance mentoring
• Workforce readiness training

Headquarters

HQ city

Milwaukee

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Personnel, Supply Chain, Others

Revenue model

1. Individual Donations: One-time and recurring monthly donations from individual donors through the P.L.A.N.T. (People Lifted And Neighborhoods Thriving) monthly giving program.
2. Café and Catering: Revenue from Kinship Café and catering services that further the mission work while generating operational funds.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Kinship Community Food Center operates a non-profit food center in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood that distributes fresh food through a market-style shop, runs an urban organic hoop house farm, hosts collaborative community meals, and provides crisis mentoring, workforce training, and spiritual formation. The organization uses food as an entry point to build lasting community relationships that address hunger, isolation, and poverty.

Product overview

Kinship Community Food Center is a nonprofit organization offering a multi-faceted approach to community food security and social support. The organization operates a portfolio of interconnected programs including Shop (a fresh food market), Grow (an urban farm producing organic produce), Feast (collaborative meals), Stride (crisis assistance mentoring), Form (training and education), Workforce (employment readiness), Mission Internship Year, and Kinship Café & Catering. The programs work together to address food insecurity while fostering community belonging, with produce from the urban farm supporting the food market and café operations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Shop (Fresh Food Market) A fresh food market program that provides fresh and healthy food to neighborhood residents along with health education, cooking demonstrations, a food bar, and connections to community resources. Intended for residents of the Riverwest neighborhood and surrounding Milwaukee communities facing food insecurity.
• Grow (Urban Farm) An urban hoop house vegetable farm that grows thousands of pounds of organic produce annually, feeding the community through the Shop market and educating participants about sustainable food production.
• Feast (Collaborative Meals) A collaborative meal program that brings a diverse group of people around a common table to explore food traditions and develop whole food culinary skills while building community relationships.
• Stride (Crisis Assistance Mentoring) A mentoring program that accompanies individuals and families in crisis to help them overcome barriers to health and economic stability, including housing assistance.
• Form (Training and Education) Service-based training for volunteers and neighborhood residents in spiritual formation, social justice, and civic action topics.
• Workforce (Employment Readiness and Training) Paid work experience program that integrates social connection and human development to create a healing path toward steady employment and economic mobility.
• Mission Internship Year A residential mission-year program of service and Catholic spiritual formation for young adults, with seven mission interns welcomed each August.
• Kinship Café & Catering A café and catering service that extends the mission of community building through food, providing meals, gathering spaces, and revenue to support program operations.
• P.L.A.N.T. Monthly Giving People Lifted And Neighborhoods Thriving (P.L.A.N.T.) is a tiered monthly giving donor program with donation levels from $10 to $250 per month, supporting food purchases, community trainings, healthy meals, urban farm supplies, mission intern stipends, and crisis assistance.

Quantifiable outcome

• 93% of shoppers say they feel accepted in our community at Kinship
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Regional players

• Hunger Task Force: Milwaukee-based food bank and anti-hunger organization directly comparable to Kinship in geography and mission; focuses on food distribution, community gardens, and nutrition education, operating at larger scale within the same city.
• Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin: Regional Feeding America affiliate serving eastern Wisconsin including Milwaukee; operates a food bank and mobile pantries serving the same population Kinship targets, at materially larger scale.

Direct peers

• Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee: Faith-based social services organization sharing Kinship's Catholic identity and Milwaukee footprint; provides food assistance, housing support, and crisis services directly comparable to Kinship's Stride and Shop programs.
• Salvation Army of Milwaukee County: Faith-rooted social services organization operating food pantries, meal programs, and crisis assistance in the same Milwaukee market as Kinship; comparable integrated service model though broader in scope.
• St. Vincent de Paul of Milwaukee: Catholic-affiliated social services organization providing food assistance, rent/utility help, and crisis support in the same Milwaukee geography; directly comparable to Kinship's Stride eviction-prevention and food distribution work.
• City Harvest: New York City-based food rescue and hunger-relief nonprofit operating fresh-food distribution and community programs; directly comparable to Kinship's Shop fresh food market and Grow urban farm model.
• Second Harvest Heartland: Large Upper Midwest food bank operating food distribution, mobile pantries, and nutrition programs; comparable mission and service mix to Kinship at materially larger scale.
• Gleaners Community Food Bank of Indiana: Regional food bank operating fresh-food distribution, hunger-relief programs, and community kitchens; comparable operating model to Kinship's Shop/Feast/Grow program stack though at larger scale.

Emerging players

• Society of St. Andrew: Faith-rooted hunger-relief nonprofit focused on gleaning and fresh produce distribution; comparable to Kinship's Grow urban farm approach in its focus on rescuing/growing fresh produce for those in need.

Others

• Habitat for Humanity Milwaukee: Adjacent community-development nonprofit operating in the same Milwaukee geography; comparable in volunteer-driven, neighborhood-rooted model and overlapping donor base, but focused on housing rather than food security.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/kinshipmke
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/kinshipcommunityfoodcenter

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Kinship Community Food Center