We have a recipe for food security
What is the Recipe?
At Urban Recipe, we believe that fighting food security is a process. We take a few key ingredients: Care, Responsibility, Courage, Community, and combine them with a focus on dignity to produce our model: the Urban Recipe Food Co-op.
In this model, co-op members take ownership of their food security, consistently showing up and participating in the food co-op. We provide a platform for leadership, food access, and community and our members bring the rest. The result: a food cooperative model that is a proven recipe for food security that reminds us that dignity tastes good.
Our Mission
Urban Recipe promotes food security and dignity through intentionally designed community-driven food cooperatives prioritizing equitable food access, relationship building, and participation in decision-making.
Our Ingredients to Success:
Care
We care about what we do to ensure we honor every neighbor’s dignity and meet the needs of our cooperative work. We approach our work with empathy and care to understand the diverse experiences of those we serve as well as each other.
Responsibility
We take responsibility for stewarding the food cooperative model and upholding high standards in all our actions. We believe we all have ownership in our quest to foster food security, equitable food access, and self-reliant communities.
Courage
We nurture a culture of courage that fuels innovation and drives us to adapt, refine, and discover new ways to combat food insecurity.
Community
We value the strength that comes from unity and strive to create a sense of belonging in sustaining vibrant communities that are self-reliant, supportive and inclusive. We aim to build robust relationships founded on respect and the dignity of every person involved.
More About Urban Recipe
Our Impact
Our History
Our Team
Asset Based Community Development (ABCD)
Our organization was founded on the principles of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD), a strategy that emphasizes harnessing the strengths and resources within a community to promote sustainable development and growth. ABCD focuses on identifying and mobilizing the existing assets, skills, and potential of community members and organizations to foster positive change.
Georgia Avenue Community Ministry (GACM)
Originally serving as the Georgia Avenue Community Ministry (GACM), Urban Recipe is an outgrowth of a 1990 initiative of Georgia Avenue Church. Under the direction of our founder, Rev. Chad Hale, GACM was separately incorporated in 2001, the primary focus being food cooperative programming that increases food security for under-resourced individuals and families.
Pandemic Pivot
Amidst the pandemic, in August 2020, Urban Recipe moved out of its original location in Grant Park into a large facility located at 970 Jefferson Street, the former location of the Atlanta Community Food Bank. This space allows Urban Recipe more room with dedicated warehouse space, and proper refrigeration and freezer space to be able to better deliver and expand upon our mission.
Needing to avoid in-person gatherings, Urban Recipe began distributing food via packed boxes delivered by dedicated co-op members and volunteers, creating what is now known as the Mobile Pantry program. While the pandemic ended, the increased need for food remained, and Urban Recipe strategically adopted the Mobile Pantry in 2022.
Now and Beyond
Over the decades, Urban Recipe has responded to subsequent demand for food security by adding food co-ops and other programs as support and resources allowed. Today, our programs work in tandem, utilizing our particular “urban recipe” to create food security in a way that affirms dignity while at the same time providing a sense of support and community for our members.
Volunteer
Join our team of dedicated volunteers and help us in our mission to provide food support to those in need.
Donate
Your contribution helps provide regular, sustained support through food co-ops and emergency food support through mobile pantries.