Ryan Wisniewski
Doing it all: Manager Adam Haen makes pasta for Craig Ahrendt of the Rodeo Wagon food cart.
When a new food cart needs help with a permit, Adam Haen helps the owners with the paperwork. When the Goodman Center needs a place to bake 3,000 pies for Thanksgiving, Haen fields the call. And when the dishwasher breaks at 3 a.m., Haen pulls himself out of bed to fix it. It’s all part of a day’s work managing the Food Enterprise & Economic Development (FEED) Kitchens on the city’s north side.
“I’m pretty much on call 24/7. No two days are the same. I didn’t know what I was getting into when I first started,” says Haen, laughing. “But what’s truly rewarding is you get to see these businesses grow and develop. You have people — who had never run their own business — come in with a dream and a year later they are getting all this great press, they are scoring super high on the annual food cart review or they are producing a sauce that is now in multiple stores.”
Now in its third year, FEED Kitchens has overcome early financial challenges and is now abuzz with activity virtually all hours of the day. More than 50 small businesses are members of the incubator. The nonprofit — part of the Northside Planning Council — runs a bakery training program, provides business development help and is playing a central role in cultivating new vendors for the Madison Public Market. It’s also home to Healthy Food for All, a community-based food recovery initiative that collects excess food from farms, employers with large cafeterias and grocery stores and then repackages and distributes it to food pantries and other groups that feed the needy.
“There are a few shared kitchens nationwide but almost none in the Midwest. When we first started, a lot of what we were trying to do was by guess and by golly,” says Haen, who has been with FEED from its beginning. “The first year was spent developing step-by-step checklists on how to start a food business. We had to figure out how exactly we were going to share this space, how to organize it, what to charge for rent. More recently, we’ve been focused on seeing what [food businesses] need and then making the connections to provide those services.”
Around a dozen food carts, including Buzzy’s Lake House, Pickle Jar and Cafe Costa Rica, use the five commercial kitchens at FEED Kitchens. Small businesses are cranking out cupcakes, frozen fruit pops, barbecue sauces, pesto, vegan sweets, cold brew coffee and even pepper-infused honey at the facility. A half-dozen catering companies got their start thanks to the nonprofit.
Haen says FEED Kitchens has been focused on building the local food economy from the bottom-up, one entrepreneur at-a-time. Around half of the businesses are owned by women, people of color and veterans. He spends 80 hours on average working individually with each member.
“First step is just integrating them into the space, showing them how all the equipment works and finding out their business needs,” says Haen, who has a degree in culinary arts and has experience running large kitchen operations. “We then go over business plans, develop marketing strategies, make sure they have all their permits. The goal is to be a one-stop shop for launching and growing food businesses.”
Depending on use, the nonprofit charges between $300 and $1,500 a month for use of its kitchen space. It also rents refrigerators, freezers and dry storage space for a flat monthly fee. Some businesses run their entire operation out of FEED Kitchens. Others just use the space to get ice or wash dishes after a big catering job. The space also serves as a convenient drop-off point for farmers and distributors supplying small businesses with ingredients and kitchen supplies. Conversely, FEED Kitchens organizes distribution of food products made at its facility to the Willy Street Co-op and other grocers.
The five commercial kitchens at FEED Kitchens are fully in use around 35 percent of the time. But use of its dry, refrigerator and freezer storage space is now at capacity. Haen says they are hoping to launch a capital campaign to expand the facility next year.
“We want to double our storage space. We are going to have a special climate-controlled fermentation room,” Haen says. “We also are in serious need of more office space and a bigger conference room.”
The expansion will also help FEED Kitchens grow its bakery training program into a full-fledged culinary arts programming. Haen says restaurants are in dire need of experienced people, especially line cooks. If all goes as planned, FEED Kitchens will add a small cafe to its space to aid in its jobs training program as well as provide some extra revenue.
“There is also a huge amount of community building happening here. Veteran members take new members under their wing, show them the ropes and give advice,” Haen says. “A lot of hard work is just now really starting to pay off. We are excited to take things to the next level.”
