Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kimberly Brown. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Kimberly thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about serving the underserved.

Belong Kitchen HTX is a nonprofit grab & go kitchen that employs adults with intellectual and developmental differences (IDD). In Texas, 94 percent of adults with IDD are unemployed. Nationally, the average is 80 percent.

Belong Kitchen HTX was created to provide dignified, meaningful employment to young adults like our middle daughter, Ellie, who has intellectual and developmental differences, but is high-functioning and very capable. As Ellie neared high-school graduation, I realized that there weren’t many opportunities for her, so I set out to create a safe, appropriate work environment for her and for those similarly situated.

We began fundraising and meeting other families who needed this for their own children. Belong is really a story about a community that came together and wholeheartedly embraced our concept, our employees and our food. We are serving delicious meals, providing transferable commercial kitchen job skills and much-needed social interaction for these adults. Belong Kitchen HTX is proof that these often overlooked adults are capable of gainful employment and have so much to offer. We hope that Belong broadens society’s expectations and begins to change the employment landscape for adults with intellectual and developmental differences.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We launched Belong Kitchen in our backyard for our middle daughter who was approaching high school graduation. Our daughter has intellectual and developmental differences and didn’t have any college or employment opportunities following graduation. She is very social and very capable and we needed to find a purpose and a path for her.

We set out to raise enough money to open a grab & go kitchen that would employ other young adults like our daughter. While fundraising and searching for our brick and mortar location, 6 young adults and I began cooking meals out of my home and selling them each week.

Our community came together to raise the money, provide prime retail space and the necessary restaurant industry expertise to open our grab & go kitchen. Our employees are supported in the kitchen by volunteers from within our community. We’ve been open for about 18 months, we currently employ 30 young adults with IDD and we are changing expectations and proving that these adults are capable. We’re providing the dignity that comes with employment and the social interaction that these adults lack due to a shortage of opportunities. Our little kitchen is changing the lives of not only our employees, but also our volunteers, our customers and our community.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Belong Kitchen HTX is a nonprofit so we had to raise the money to secure our retail space, build out the space and furnish it in order to open. We began fundraising in our backyard with a launch party for family and friends. I think our audience knew and understood the need for our concept and wanted to help. We explored many different avenues for funding including nonprofit competitions, grant opportunities, individual and corporate giving as well as individual and corporate foundations.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The search for retail space was taking longer than anticipated but I was confident in the concept and ready to move forward so we started with 6 young adults and began preparing meals in my home and selling them every week.

This time proved to be a great opportunity to learn and perfect recipes, processes, and procedures. We learned strengths and weaknesses of our employees, we experimented with packaging and customer communications. It allowed us to improve our product and be prepared for our brick and mortar location.

It was important for us to be productive while we were searching for our retail space. We had employees that were ready to work and so it made sense to move forward.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.belongkitchenhtx.org/
• Instagram: @belongkitchenhtx
• Facebook: @belongktichenhtx
• Linkedin: Kim Brown

Image Credits
Marlo Wise Photography