In summer 2024, we collaborated with the Design Studio for Social Intervention in prototyping Boston’s first semi-permanent public kitchen in Dorchester (Upham’s Corner). ds4si has been prototyping public kitchen’s in Boston since 2010 (find out more info here: https://www.ds4si.org/creativity-labs/public-kitchen). 

This was a free 3 month long activation open every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 3-7pm. We hosted over 25 activators in the space, ranging from Vietnamese Chefs to food rescue specialists and everything in between. Community members and a public kitchen design cohort helped co-design the programming of this space. This included; open public kitchen hours (drop in times where anybody could come and cook/teach/make a family meal), community events (food poetry slams,  “chopped-style” challenges, food justice chats), various culturally relevant cooking demos, community led activations and ample opportunities to co-design the next iteration of Public Kitchen with community members (heavy emphasis on design research).