Speech and Testimony
County Executive Leggett’s Remarks at the TPSS Community Kitchen Groundbreaking
Takoma Park Presbyterian Church: 310 Maple Avenue, Takoma Park
As prepared
Good afternoon! What better time than when people are getting ready to head home for dinner to cut the ribbon on this new Food Prep facility for the County and the surrounding areas?
I would like to thank Takoma Park Presbyterian Church and the Crossroads Community Food Network for inviting me to this momentous occasion. I would also like to thank Congressman Jamie Raskin and Delegate Sheila Hixson for their support to this kitchen and the community.
This kitchen is significant for a number of reasons.
Of those reasons, dear to my heart of course, is that it can now be used as a resource within the community to address economic inequality by providing business-development opportunities to low-income people.
Most small-scale food business entrepreneurs lack the capital to invest in their own production facilities. Furthermore, rental costs at the handful of available commercial, kitchen establishments in the DC area are prohibitive — especially for low-income producers.
This kitchen can now play a critical role in developing a healthy, safe, secure, and local, food system in addition to serving the community and the surrounding areas in food recovery efforts and by offering cooking and nutrition classes.
All of this is supported by the Crossroads Micro-enterprise development training program. This free, bilingual, business training provides support to local, aspiring food entrepreneurs. The 10-part workshop series makes sometimes esoteric information more accessible, and covers food safety basics, business fundamentals, and everything else to develop and maintain a successful kitchen.
The Takoma Park Silver Spring Community Kitchen can now provide an affordable means of production.
Working in partnership with the County, State, and the city of Takoma Park, what we have here is a state-of-the-art facility that is 1,120 square feet of operational and storage space.
It has new equipment and capabilities that will allow for the safe preparation of new, different and healthier choices – choices we couldn’t provide before because the original kitchen, which had fallen into disrepair, was deemed unusable.
The collective effort of this partnership changed that and can now give us greater capability to foster a better quality of life for this community and our neighbors well into the future.
This kitchen is a shining example of what that future will be. Thank you!
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Release ID: 17-092
September 16; 4 p.m.