Two people holding a check for two thousand five hundred dollars from the ReMax Integrity Foundation

Rising News – Summer 2021

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Despite the increasing rise and impacts of the Delta Varient, Reality Kitchen, along with so many other food service businesses across our community, we have continued to be fortunate to have received so much good will, generosity and kind support from so many neighbors and community friends. Your help is affirming to us that you value our Mission. Without the contributions you and so many of your friends have made, Reality Kitchen Nonprofit would not be able to reopen our doors and continue operations, so please consider making a contribution of financial support today. For that, and so much more, we are very grateful and thank you, so much !

Our Pickup Window will be open each Friday for subscribers to our CSB to get their orders. Until further notice, our Cafe will be closed for walk up service.

If you want to be in touch with us directly, please call us at 541.337.1323

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Café food service temporarily suspended

When we learned that we qualified for the SBA Restaurant Revitalization Fund grant, it gave us the confidence to know we would likely be able to make payroll until the middle of the Fall, despite the slow and unsteady reopening of the local food service economy. So it came as a blow to us when we learned two days before our paperwork was to be submitted that the SBA published it’s criteria that prevented all nonprofits from being able to make application for the grant.

Even though U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley joined Oregon’s Rep. Peter DeFazio, Rep. Earl Blumenauer and Suzanne Bonamici in writing to the Director of the SBA asking for reconsideration of the rules citing Reality Kitchen’s contributions to the Community and unique training program, no response came.

So, like every other business, we have faced the responsibility to meet our payroll through sales and, despite many loyal and supportive neighbors and customers, the numbers have continued to fall short and we have been forced to temporarily suspend the food services in our retail café.

While this will not directly impact our Employment Path Program and wholesale baking operations, it has forced us to make difficult choices in laying off staff who have been more family than employees in order to manage our payroll obligations. With crisis comes opportunities and change, so we remain optimistic that we can turn our finances around, thanks to many kind contributors who continue to make donations to our secure, online portal at www.realitykitchen.org, but that other more dependable and profitable operations will steadily rebuild and return our retail café service, hopefully, by the Spring of 2022.

We will continue to do our best to help those who need it the most.

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Community Supported Baking

Like so many businesses and other nonprofits during this difficult time we are stretching ourselves to find creative ways to keep our organization afloat, our valued staff engaged as well as provide our services and product to our members and the larger community, while doing our best to keep everyone safe and secure in the days and months ahead.

Members can visit our website: www.realitykitchen.org, to order a “CSB” box filled with your favorite breads, pretzels, pastries, pies, soups, growlers to go, meals prepared in house, bulk food items, locally sourced specialty products, gift certificates and more. Each week/month our product list will have new flavors and items to choose from that will always include GF and vegan options.

Go to our online Member Store to place orders weekly, bi-monthly or monthly and your selections will be prepared for delivery to your door or boxed and available for you to pick up at the café after 12 noon each Friday.

We ask you to commit to spend a minimum of $50 each month with us over the membership year. There is no limit on what you can spend, of course, and your orders can vary from week to week during the month. This base income will give our baking team the opportunity to better plan their production, develop new products to suit the interests and needs of our customers and, most importantly, help our Supported Staff continue to be successful in their goals for employment path experiences in an integrated workplace setting.

Of course, one or more households can share the orders you make each month to save on trips to the store and get great baked goods and other items while supporting the ongoing work of your favorite 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization!

Lucy Bug Community Mural Project

We’ve begun filling in our “Lucy Bug” Mural at our Pickup Window and will keep bringing color and life to this community mural project !
 
Lucy was my neighbor back in Gainesville, Florida and she always brought a smile and a Grandmother’s Love to everyone she met. We started painting this awhile back and some friends and neighbors got together to put paint to wall. We’ll be pulling out those brushes again soon and we’ll invite you to come and lend a hand ! Check our Facebook page and visit our website for updates !

The Elder’s Luncheon is returning!

A special activity held every Wednesday was our Elder’s Luncheon where our Supported Staff would prepare and serve a four course meal, free of charge, to elderly neighbors and community members.

These lunches were supported by donors and the income from the retail café and wholesale baking operations and became a wonderful opportunity to honor and give back to those extended family members who have spent a lifetime giving to each of us. Without the income we had from the Cafe’, your support is more needed now.

Serving these respected elders gave our Supported Staff a full circle experience where they planted and nurtured organic vegetables raised at our Reality Kitchen Garden at a neighbor’s home based farm. These students harvested and were shown how to plan a menu, prepare serve these nutritious meals while rotating local musicians came to perform during these luncheons. We appreciated the regular participants in these gatherings and established a learning opportunity that taught us all the valuable lesson that remembering our elders and caring for them, filled our hearts and souls while nourishing them with whole food and love.
Unfortunately, changes in ownership at the garden and demands on our business forced us to suspend these lunches. But the experience has remained with us and we are often asked if this would return.

When Pacific Source approached us with their generous $2500 grant to respond to the continuing rise of food insecurity in our community, we were inspired to return the Elder’s Luncheon and welcome back these special friends and neighbors.

More info on when these lunches will be returning is coming soon! We cannot wait to start them up again, but in order to keep them going we need your support. Please see the link below to learn more. As always, we thank you for your support!

A group of individuals sitting around a table, socializing at a restaurant.

Our Food Insecurity Initiative

To learn more about how you can support this meaningful learning activity, please visit the Food Insecurity Initiative page and consider how your organization, company, legal or medical group, or family foundation could participate with a matching $2500 grant, or perhaps make an individual donation to fund this Essential Event!

Learn More

Thank you to our donors!

Two people holding a check for two thousand five hundred dollars from the ReMax Integrity Foundation
“Providing financial and team support for organizations that improve the local communities in which we live and work is the Mission of the ReMax Integrity Foundation. Our commitment to making our community a home for everyone is why we have continued to give our financial and personal support to Reality Kitchen Nonprofit. This vital organization has made inclusion and caring for those who are most in need at the core of their mission and we encourage others to join us in providing the resources this organization uses to continue doing this important work.”
The ReMax Integrity Foundation
A group of people holding a check for 7 thousand dollars from the Oregon Community Foundation
“Oregon Community Foundation is delighted that generous Oregonians are recognizing the need to step up to address food insecurity at this precarious moment,” said Patrick Hosfield, Donor Relations Officer, OCF. “This is a complicated issue and there is no simple solution to ensure people don’t struggle with hunger. OCF is pleased to help facilitate this grant. Reality Kitchen is approaching this problem with such creativity by using a retail business model that offers supported employment to community members with disabilities, while also helping feed unhoused folks and other people in need.” Reality Kitchen wishes to thank the R.W. Family Fund of Oregon Community Foundation for their generosity and support for our efforts to remain vital in our community.”
The Oregon Community Foundation 
A group of people holding up a sign for PacificSource
“PacificSource is pleased to support Reality Kitchen and their ongoing efforts to provide a welcome and inclusive environment for those most in need in our local community. The work experience they offer individuals, with and without disabilities, combined with their tireless support for those experiencing food insecurity, makes them a critical asset in addressing the unique challenges that affect social determinants of health. We encourage others to visit and support this deserving local nonprofit.”
The Pacific Source Team 

author

Jim Evangelista, Executive Director

Jim earned a Master’s Degree in Special Education from the University of Oregon and worked in Lane Educational Service District classrooms in both middle school and transition programs prior to co-founding Reality Kitchen Nonprofit.

Board of Directors

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