$80K grant will feed women in need
A free-food festival for women in need and their families will take place Sunday at Sherman Phoenix on the north side, made possible by $80,000 from World Central Kitchen.
Twenty-two restaurants and other food vendors will be at Sherman Phoenix, 3536 W. Fond du Lac Ave., from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, and the event will have DJ DripSweat supplying music to keep it festive.
Caitlin Cullen, the chef at the Tandem who is organizing the free-food festival, said the vendors asked to take part are women-owned businesses, because the grant is tied to International Women’s Day in March.
Milwaukee is one of just 13 U.S. cities receiving this funding for restaurants and the hungry from World Central Kitchen, Cullen said.
The businesses will have stations where they’ll hand out food they’ve prepared, like a street market. Some items will be meant to be eaten straightaway; some are to be taken home for heating and eating later, Cullen said. It’s expected that visitors will be given bags for taking along food items, a number of which will be in family-size portions.
The event will be held rain or shine; it’s planned for outside the restaurant and retail hub, but since Sherman Phoenix is closed Sundays, it can move indoors in case of rain, with capacity restrictions.
These are the vendors scheduled for Sunday, including some whose home base is Sherman Phoenix:
SkyDine Catering, Pacific Orient Express, MilWokEe, Baked Dreams Creations, Rise + Grind Cafe, Hue, Meat on the Street, Flour Girl + Flame, the National, Sauce + Spice Pizza, Confectionately Yours;
Also, Goodkind, Cavas, the Pasta Tree, Birch + Butcher, Orenda, Delicious Bites, My Family Roots Catering, Buffalo Boss, Strange Town, Soul Brew and Juice Kitchen.
Because the $80,000 reimburses vendors for their ingredients and labor, the grant will help restaurants and other food-and-drink businesses affected by the pandemic and its economic fallout as well as residents.
World Central Kitchen, the international relief organization founded by chef José Andrés, has fed hungry Milwaukeeans before, with Cullen administering the funds and enlisting dozens of restaurants.
The organization funded free meals disbursed through the Tandem starting in April 2020 and lasting several months, and it funded the Chefs for the Polls project that gave away food near polls during early voting and on Election Day 2020.
World Central Kitchen has spent at least $500,000 so far to feed the hungry and support restaurants in Milwaukee, Cullen estimated.
“They’re a strong advocate of ours now,” Cullen said of the group’s relationship with Milwaukee.