The corner kitchen: an approach to creating and sharing resources amidst urban decay

Food is an instrument to bring communities together. It is cultural, medicinal, and deeply personal. But food isn’t always regarded with such esteem. America’s current political and economic conditions encourage under-resourced communities to become dependent on outside actors by stripping their access to internal resources. This decentralization is unsustainable and decreases the dignity of a community. The Corner Kitchen is a model to demonstrate productive alternatives to food production, consumption, and access in America, and it changes how communities eat, cook, produce, and consume food, which helps grow community ties and strengthen a neighborhood through its independence. The project mission is to equip and empower communities to grow and prepare balanced meals to increase health and wellness, strengthen community interdependence, and combat patterns of mass consumption and food waste. This thesis focuses on food as a resource, but the model is designed to be translatable across communities and other resource types to create more self-sustaining communities.