Profiles in Service: UGK Community First

If your business is based on bringing people together to dine, how do you adapt when COVID-19 hits?

For Richmond, Virginia-based The Underground Kitchen (UGK), it meant changing their business model and shifting their focus. UGK is known for pushing the boundaries of the dining experience ― “exciting the senses, creating community, and exploring possibilities.” UGK focuses particularly on partnering with chefs who are underrepresented in the fine dining world, like minorities and women.

The luxury events company lost all of their contracts in March 2019 due to COVID-19, and UGK founder Michael Sparks wasn’t sure what to do next. But he knew who would.

“I asked myself ‘what would my mom do?’ I called her, and she said to figure out how to help people.”

The result was a new non-profit organization, UGK Community First. UGK Community First exists to provide healthy, wholesome meals to those in need, particularly in food insecure areas and to those currently adversely affected by the coronavirus.

With a walk-in full of food, the UGK team began cooking soup and bread for anyone in need. They started in restaurant kitchens around Richmond and initially served 175 meals the week of March 23.

UGK Community First has scaled up its response to help through the generous support of Episcopal Diocese of Virginia member churches in metro Richmond. The food relief operation currently also has nine chefs and two bakers working in church kitchens to produce the homemade soup and bread.

They are serving approximately 2,500 meals a week and have served more than 50,000 meals in less than four months. The goal is to continue increasing both the number of meals and the areas served. The first step was expanding with UGK Community First: Greenville in South Carolina.

UGK Community First: Greenville continues the work of employing a team of chefs and local partners to provide nutritious, chef-prepared meals to the community. In mid-June, UGK Community First partnered with the Greenville Drive, the city’s minor league baseball team, and FoodShare SC, whose statewide mission is to ensure community members who are experiencing food insecurity have access to fresh produce.

The initiative launched on June 17, commemorating the five-year anniversary since nine parishioners lost their lives at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., including The Honorable Reverend Clementa C. Pinckney (pinckneyfoundation.org). Pinckney was known as a fervent supporter of ensuring that all families in South Carolina have access to real food and fresh produce, understanding the value of food as a source of healing.

1,009 quarts of soup were made that day, a symbolic tribute to the nine South Carolinians. Each meal bag also included a fresh loaf of bread, white roses, rosemary and a note of affirmation.

The UGK Community First leadership sees their program continuing long after this crisis passes, with a focus on distributing meals to families and children who live in a constant food insecure environment, as well as supplementing other programs who are doing the same.

Through the work of UGK Community First, Sparks has seen the good in others.

“We thought we had lost everything and were feeling hopeless. We were dedicated to serving our community, but it turns out, our community is also serving us now.”

For more information about UGK Community First, visit ugkcommunityfirst.org. The organization is always looking for in-kind sponsors that are willing to donate foodservice equipment, supplies or packaging.

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We want to continue telling the stories of people in the foodservice industry making a difference during this difficult time. Reach out to us via email or direct message us on Facebook if you have one to share.