Riverwest Food Pantry

What Riverwest Food Pantry does

Riverwest Food Pantry, legally organized as Kinship Community Food Center, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 46-3422131) headquartered at 2610 N Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with a primary distribution site at 924 E Clarke Street. The organization operates a portfolio of interconnected community programs that use food as an entry point for relationship-building and wraparound social services: Shop (a Fresh Food Market with health education and cooking demonstrations), Grow (an urban hoop house farm producing roughly 20,000 lbs of organic produce annually), Feast (collaborative community meals with approximately 14,700-15,000 servings in 2024), Stride (crisis-assistance mentoring that protected 94 families from eviction in 2024), Form (spiritual and civic formation), Workforce (paid work experience and employment readiness launched May 30, 2024), a residential Mission Internship Year for young adults, and Kinship Café & Catering as a social-enterprise layer. The organization serves food-insecure individuals and families in the Riverwest neighborhood, drawing on more than 5,000 annual volunteers (approximately 1,000 of whom are also food recipients). A capital project for a permanent home is under construction with an opening scheduled for summer 2027.

The business model is donation-funded: individual one-time and recurring contributions (structured via the P.L.A.N.T. — People Lifted And Neighborhoods Thriving — monthly giving tiers from $10 to $250), online donations through GoFundMe and the organization's own donation pages, and ancillary earned revenue from Kinship Café & Catering. Services are provided free of charge to community members, and the GTM motion is community-led — relying on word-of-mouth, social service agency referrals, church partnerships, and personal testimonials rather than paid marketing channels. Distribution occurs through scheduled food-distribution events on Tuesdays and Saturdays, plus the Fresh Food Market, urban farm, café meals, and workforce/training sites. The organization is privately held as a charitable entity with no disclosed parent company, no venture capital backing, and no institutional investors; governance is through a board of directors and staff leadership. No revenue figure is publicly disclosed in available materials.

Name

Riverwest Food Pantry

Legal name

Kinship Community Food Center

Website

https://riverwestfoodpantry.org

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Riverwest Food Pantry (Kinship Community Food Center) is a Milwaukee-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit that uses food distribution, urban farming, employment training, and crisis mentoring to serve food-insecure individuals and families in the Riverwest neighborhood.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Food Assistance

NAICS

Community Food Services (624210)

akta.pro primary industry

Food Assistance & Food Banks (BPAGAEAA)

Keywords

• Community food pantry
• Food assistance programs
• Urban farm production
• Crisis mentoring services
• Workforce training programs

Headquarters

HQ city

Milwaukee

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Supply Chain, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Individual Donations: One-time and recurring financial donations from individuals supporting food security and community programs. Monthly giving program called P.L.A.N.T. (People Lifted And Neighborhoods Thriving) with donation levels from $10 to $250 per month.
2. Online Fundraising: Donations collected through GoFundMe platform and organization's own donation pages.
3. Volunteer Contributions: More than 5,000 volunteers contribute time annually, with about 1,000 of those volunteers also being shoppers at the food center.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Riverwest Food Pantry, operated by Kinship Community Food Center, runs a community food center that distributes free groceries on Tuesdays and Saturdays at the St. Casimir site in Milwaukee, complemented by a fresh food market with health education and cooking demonstrations, an urban hoop house farm, collaborative community meals, crisis mentoring, paid workforce training, volunteer formation, a mission internship year, and a café and catering service.

Product overview

Kinship Community Food Center is a community-focused nonprofit offering a suite of interconnected programs centered around food as an entry point to creating lasting relationships. The core portfolio includes a Fresh Food Market (Shop) with health education and food bar services, an Urban Farm (Grow) producing organic produce, collaborative meal programs (Feast), crisis assistance mentoring (Stride), employment readiness training (Workforce), and spiritual formation (Form). Additional offerings include a Mission Internship Year for young adults, café and catering services, and the P.L.A.N.T. monthly giving program. These programs work together to address food insecurity while fostering community belonging and economic mobility.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• P.L.A.N.T. Initiative: People Lifted And Neighborhoods Thriving - monthly giving program
• Kinship Café & Catering
• Kinship Shop
• Kinship Grow
• Kinship Feast
• Kinship Stride
• Kinship Form
• Mission Internship Year

Products and services

• Shop (Fresh Food Market) A fresh food market integrating health education, cooking demonstrations, a food bar, and connections to community resources. Open to neighborhood residents in need of nutritious food.
• Grow (Urban Farm) An urban hoop house vegetable farm that grows thousands of pounds of organic produce annually to feed and educate the community.
• Feast A collaborative meal that brings a diverse group around a common table to explore food traditions and whole food culinary skills.
• Stride A mentoring program that accompanies people in crisis to overcome their barriers to health and economic stability. In 2024, 94 families were protected from eviction through Stride.
• Workforce Paid work experience that integrates social connection and human development to create a healing path toward steady employment and economic mobility.
• Form Service-based training for volunteers and neighborhood residents in spiritual formation, social justice, and civic action.
• Mission Internship Year A residential mission-year of service and Catholic spiritual formation for young adults. In 2024, 7 mission interns were welcomed.
• Kinship Café & Catering Café and catering services that further the mission of the food center, providing meals and community gathering spaces.

Quantifiable outcome

• 86-93% of shoppers say they have made new friends since coming to Kinship
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Regional players

• Midwest Food Bank: Food bank serving Midwest region with distribution and food rescue operations. Comparable in food distribution focus but at a larger multi-state scale.

Emerging players

• Harlem Grown: NYC-based nonprofit combining urban farming with food education and youth development. Comparable in integrating urban agriculture with community food access and education mission.
• Martha's Table: Washington DC nonprofit addressing food insecurity through healthy food access, education, and family support. Comparable integrated model of food distribution plus wraparound services.

Others

• Project Bread: Massachusetts anti-hunger organization funding food access programs and advocating for food security policy. Comparable in food assistance mission though focused on grantmaking and advocacy rather than direct distribution.

Direct peers

• Hunger Task Force: Milwaukee-based food bank and anti-hunger organization distributing food across the metro area. Most direct geographic peer addressing food insecurity through free food distribution and nutrition education.
• Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin: Regional food bank serving eastern Wisconsin including Milwaukee. Operates similar food distribution, mobile pantries, and nutrition programs to address food insecurity in the same geography.
• St. Vincent de Paul of Milwaukee: Catholic faith-based nonprofit providing food pantries, housing assistance, and crisis support. Closely aligned with Kinship's Catholic identity and integrated social services model.

Broad incumbents

• Milwaukee Rescue Mission: Larger Milwaukee faith-based nonprofit providing meals, shelter, and recovery programs. Comparable mission integration of food assistance with broader social services.
• Salvation Army of Milwaukee County: Major nonprofit providing food pantries, meal programs, and emergency assistance in Milwaukee. Comparable in operating food distribution and integrated crisis services.
• Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee: Regional Catholic social services organization with food assistance, housing, and workforce programs. Operates with similar Catholic mission framing but at a much larger institutional scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

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

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

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 Riverwest Food Pantry