(Image: Cooks for Black Lives Matter)
By Gabrielle Locke
A project is bringing together Seattle area chefs, bakers and farmers to produce monthly CSA-style boxes and raise funds for social justice and equity.
The Cooks for Black Lives Matter’s project has raised thousands for King County Equity Now and is ready to continue its growth in 2021, organizers say.
Jude Watson and Max Goldstein founded Cooks for BLM in May of 2020. They met each other while working on the Hill at Stateside and found themselves laid off just as Black Lives Matter demonstrations began to grow in May.
Watson grew up on Capitol Hill and, before working as a chef, they helped organize queer youth space. Watson is currently a deli lead at Salumi. Goldstein is patiently waiting to be rehired at Stateside, when they open back up.
“As a white person one of the ways that I can support organizations that are led by people of color is fundraising,” Watson said. While working together, Goldstein and Watson realized they had a common goal, to use food donation as a way to raise money for organization led by people of color.
Cooks for BLM works with a network of local providers to deliver 60 to 80 boxes of ten gourmet vegetarian items to customer doorsteps. Each box costs $105, and 85% of the program’s revenue is donated directly to Black-led organizing in Seattle, with 10% going back into the participating culinary community.
The duo is also adding new projects mixing their industry and social justice. On February 7th at 11:00 AM, Watson and Goldstein are co-hosting the Hungry for Justice Summit, an online event for anyone interested in using food to raise money for racial justice.
“The goal of our projects is to raise as much money as possible for Black-led organizing in Seattle,” Watson said. “There is just generally not a lot of grant funding that goes to community organizing and activism most grants to direct service organizations and direct service is things like housing for homeless folks or food banks which are critically important but in order to change systems of oppression we need people doing direct action and community organizing work.”
You can learn more at cooksforblacklivesmatter.com.
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Why not just a “fairness for all” box? This tribalism and ego stuff doesn’t end well.
Because, as we have clearly witnessed over and over and over again in just the past several months, there are powerful systemic social forces in this country that don’t affect all races equally. “Fairness for all” (a.k.a. “all lives matter”) does not acknowledge, let alone address, this reality.
Thanks for explaining
There may not be a lot of grant money for community organizing and activism, but there is a lot of tax money flowing to Equity Now through Councilmember Morales’s office in the form of a $3,000,000 no-bid contract funneled through a third party organization that is also a sub-contractor. Apparently, the scope of work is less than one page and includes no performance metrics or clearly defined deliverables. I am glad to hear that the State Auditor is investigating. While I support private donations to fund activism and community organizing, the use of public funding for such activities is troubling.