Grassroots Community Kitchen opens in East Gainesville

Chef Carl Watts of Underground Kitchen and the Gainesville Housing Authority (GHA) are partnering to open the first community kitchen in East Gainesville this month. 

Grassroots Community Kitchen is launching a multi-faceted nutritional awareness campaign featuring events and services for immediate and disaster food relief year-round. Every service is supplied with locally grown, organic vegetables and homemade provisions, according to a press release from GHA. 

“Our mission is to provide the best quality of ingredients to our community, while also maintaining a position of readiness for times of need for our neighbors,” the release said. 

Aiming to facilitate a mindset of “eating like it matters”, Grassroots will offer quarterly pop-up community dinners, with the first one slated from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on July 18 at 2626 E University Ave. Live music will accompany the first-come, first-served farm-to-table event. 

Grassroots will provide provisions for over 200 residents at GHA’s Pine Meadows, Lake Terrace and Caroline Manor units, and serve around 1,000 daily meals for the broader Alachua County’s needs.  

Disaster relief provisions are set aside to feed neighbors in times of government shutdowns, power outages and natural disasters.  

The need for disaster relief and communal provisions has deepened as the economy shifts and local programs like the UF/IFAS Family Nutrition Program have shut down. 

In November, the Gainesville City Commission authorized $100,000 in emergency food assistance when Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits were suspended. Alachua County followed suit with $200,000 the next month and the Children’s Trust of Alachua County (CTAC) also allotted $150,000 to support SNAP-dependent families that month. 

Grassroots will also function as a shared kitchen with culinary mentorship opportunities for youth and existing entrepreneurs.  

GHA youth will operate an after-school provision market at Grassroots, selling packaged goods and seasonal provision boxes of ingredients they grow. 

“With so much going on in our economy—as we saw last year with SNAP benefits being cut—I thought it was very important to ensure that this kitchen also had the means to store, manufacture and distribute food in a time of need, the time of need to our community,” Watts posted on Facebook. 

Watts is known for using food to help a community flourish.  

The local chef currently serves as the executive director of Chef Empowerment, an initiative aiming to increase employment and decrease crime by partnering with local businesses to offer vocational training and job placement for graduates of the culinary program. 

Chef Empowerment also services Underground Kitchen (722 NW 5th Ave.), a curbside pick-up restaurant cooking southern food from local ingredients while mentoring youth and helping place young adults in culinary jobs.  

Watts worked with “at-risk” adults ages 18 to 24 during his time as a Gang Intervention Specialist for the Gainesville Police Department’s Black on Black Crime Task Force. He currently works as a chef at Gainesville’s Blue Gill Quality Food. 

Watts and the Underground Kitchen partnered with GHA in December to host the community-wide Unity Long Table Dinner at GHA’s Elite Training Center, where he announced Grassroots’ launch. 

“My goal here is a state of food preparedness for our community partners and members, while also battling food insecurities on our East side through exposure to non-ultra processed [and] locally grown ingredients and nutritional awareness events!!” Watts posted on Facebook. “Mrs. [Pamela Davis, GHA Chief Executive Officer] and her team shared the same interests and thus Grassroots was founded.”