One year into their grab-and-grow program, Amor Healing Kitchen is working on expanding operations and reaching a bigger audience. The local nonprofit, founded in 2018, prepares and delivers plant-based meals to patients facing serious health challenges.
Like any nonprofit, Amor hustles to raise funds through grants, donations and community events. Those community events introduced people to the delightful culinary creations coming out of the Amor kitchen, and regular folks started wanting more.
After fielding requests from people in the community to offer these healthy options to a wider audience, Amor began a weekly grab and “grow” program, where anyone can order a meal in advance and pick it up from their Avondale headquarters. Meals vary in size and price and include larger meals for up to four people, as well as smaller, snack-y items.
Amor founder and executive director Maria Kelly said the program is helping Amor become more sustainable as a nonprofit. “You grab food from us,” she said. “And you help us grow.”
Good for the soul
The entirely volunteer-run organization sources as much food from local farmers and purveyors as possible and they get donations from Trader Joe’s and Costco through another local nonprofit, Cuisine Rescue, that salvages food that would otherwise be thrown away.
Many of Amor’s 50+ volunteers are teens and Kelly said they learn how to prepare food by, well, preparing food — jumping in to help where they’re needed and learning on the fly.
The weekly menus are composed by culinary director, chef Kenny Veasel, who Kelly deemed “unstump-able” when it comes to creatively using whatever produce the kitchen gets in every week. Veasel said that a recent creation, sweet potato cookies, felt pretty inventive.
“It’s not often that you can just wing it with a regular recipe [and make it] vegan and it actually comes out,” he said.
Folks looking to start grabbing some grab-and-grow meals can look forward to both sweet and savory items. Recent menu items have included a take-and-bake tamale pie ($55/four servings, $30/two servings), a Thai-inspired salad ($12) and carrot soup ($22/32 oz.). You can also grab little bites like powerballs, blondies and lemon poppy muffins ($6+).
“I think a lot of busy families want to eat healthier,” said Kelly. “We had a mom come in a few weeks ago and she said, ‘Thank you, this is letting me now go to yoga and relax and know that my family is going to eat something healthy.’ ”
The grab-and-grow program helps folks eat healthier (in a convenient way, no less) and supports the nonprofit itself, helping sick people get four weekly meals, snacks, desserts and flowers. Amor gets the flowers from Trader Joe’s and Roadside Blooms and some volunteers are even growing flowers in a nearby park.
Kelly said that some of the grab-and-grow customers are already vegan or plant-based, but many people are just interested in trying out that kind of cuisine. “It’s exposing them to a whole different [cuisine.] People are like, ‘Do you just eat salads?’” joked Kelly, who is happy to show them that vegan food goes far beyond salads.
Check out the grab-and-grow program for yourself by heading online to amorhealingkitchen.org/grab-and-grow. Sign up for the organization’s weekly emails, where you’ll receive more info about ordering ahead of time. Amor is working on setting up a self-service area in their Avondale kitchen for customers to come in, grab food and check out with an iPad.
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