Our Story
City of Good is a nonprofit created by Boise businesses and civic organizations to feed those who are isolated or in need in our community – and put people back to work in this effort during our challenging times created by the COVID-19 crisis. We use a social enterprise framework to develop services and products that raise funds to help us build a local, living economy and a resilient community for the people who live and work here.
We Have the Power to Positively Impact our Community.
So we are Taking Action.
City of Good launched in early 2020 amidst the COVID pandemic to increase our community’s food system resilience. We partnered with the Boise Farmers Market to redesign its Saturday operations by deploying a virtual shopping system, drive-thru delivery and by mobilizing a massive volunteer base for the Market’s weekly on-site operations.
Our simultaneous challenge as a community was to help feed our city’s citizens affected by job loss owing to the pandemic. While food insecurity existed pre-COVID, the issue is poised to become only a much larger crisis over time. This, in addition to seeing record numbers of lay-offs in the food-service industry and the challenges faced by local farms and producers to bring their products to market, was the first opportunity for City of Good to problem-solve.
Since then, City of Good has joined forces with the Boise School District’s Community Schools Program to help provide healthy meals to food-insecure children on a weekly basis, bridging the span of weekends when hunger is most often acute. These Weekend Fuel Kits are created by chefs and their teams at six participating restaurants. Food is currently being prepared by the following businesses: Bittercreek Alehouse, The Boise Co-op, The Brickyard, Fork, KIN, and The Wylder. This in turn has helped the restaurants to reemploy their kitchen staff at a time when these small businesses are operating at well below capacity. By ensuring that no less than 30% of each meal features fresh, local produce, we’re supporting our critical local farm ecosystem.
TIMELINE
EARLY APRIL 2020
City of Good is born out of the coronavirus
The global pandemic drastically affected the Boise community. Businesses were closed, jobs were lost, people were isolated due to the stay-at-home mandate, and farmers lost access to their markets for selling all the fresh produce just coming into season.
EARLY APRIL 2020
Boise Farmers Market impact with volunteers
City of Good bolstered the Boise Farmers Market by activating and organizing a small army of volunteers to run a drive-thru market where customers collect farm fresh produce after making purchases online.
APRIL 3rd 2020
Nonprofit status achieved
May 2nd, 2020
Earned Income Meal Program first meal sold at Boise Farmers Market
We began selling delicious, fresh lunches through BFM, with a portion of these sales supporting free meals for those in need.
May 9th, 2020
First meals given away to those in need, from the Boise Farmers Market
Local restaurant staff make fresh, healthy meals for those in isolation or who had experienced recent job loss. Meals were free of charge and given away weekly at the Boise Farmers Market.
June 5th 2020
Boise School District partnership begins
Many students rely on school for regular meals. When school let out in June, CoG changed focus and began producing their Weekend Fuel Kits, providing hungry children in the BSD six fresh, healthy meals to sustain them through the weekend. The Fuel Kits continue to this day, free of charge, supported by our purchased meals and generous donors.
July 3rd 2020
Event Partnerships begin
CoG teamed up with the Idaho Botanical Garden (another non-profit) to sell their Box of Good meals at the first Create + Connect event. The model for these event partnerships exists today, with ⅓ of the cost of the meals still supporting our Weekend Fuel Kits.