Share This Campaign:
Thank you for all your Support!!
Even though the campaign is over it's not too late to give!
You can mail checks to
Fresh 82 LLC
5801-G N. Pulaski Rd.
Chicago IL 60646
Call Chef Fresh at 847-924-3947
or Donate here
The Short Story
Fresh 82 is opening a community driven cafe. This cafe will further the food justice work Chef Fresh has been committed to. This cafe will go beyond just food and offer a skill training program to community youth who need it most. While the cafe is open to the public, its location on North Park Village’s Community Campus provides a critically needed spot for hundreds of low income seniors to get fresh nutrient dense affordable food that they need. There is no other food source easily accessible to the many residents that live on this campus.
Your donations and contributions will not only be critical in providing this food source for the elders in this community, but It will also allow Fresh 82 to have a full kitchen to continue and expand the affordable food they provide to nonprofits in community and give marginalized youth a chance for skill training.
Who is Fresh/Sharonmelissa?
Born and raised in Eastern North Carolina, Fresh (Sharonmelissa) upheld a southern tradition of entering the kitchen as soon as she could walk and hold a whisk. A transplant to the Midwest, she now considers Chicago to be home. Leaving her background in Engineering and Physics, she has professionally studied cooking in Thailand and the US and has worked in many kitchens including the elite kitchens of Google and Facebook.
Using local, fresh, seasonal items, and supporting organic, sustainable agriculture, she brings her ideas to existence. She dreams of fresh, quality, food being accessible to all walks of life. Some of her cultural influences include traditional southern soul food, cuisines from Hawaii, as well as Japan.
Fresh(Sharonmelissa) is a community based activist surrounding food and food security extensively in communities of color and with Elders. She provides meals weekly for various not-for-profits and programs geared toward homelessness and street-youth and Senior food access. Known as Chef Fresh amongst the community members she feeds, Sharonmelissa received her Bachelors in Culinary Arts and a Nutrition Concentration from Kendall College.
Running Fresh 82, she has offered her services as a personal chef, caterer, and instructor of cooking classes. Fresh conquers many specialty diets and keeps everyone from Vegans, the Gluten Free, to the meat eaters savoring every bite. She uses the power of food in the healing sense, and takes great care in what she prepares as nourishment.
Outside of cooking, Fresh is a fat activist, lover of hip hop, riding her bike ridiculously long distances, and growing her own food.
A little more background on the opportunity
Fresh 82 has been given the opportunity of a lifetime and now is turning to the community for additional support. EHDOC has offered Fresh 82, LLC a restaurant/cafeteria space free of charge. This space is outfitted with equipment, has a maintenance team for upkeep, and includes utilities.
What’s the catch? Fresh 82 has to take care of all it’s licenses, insurance, food, employees, etc, and put out exceptional quality affordable meals. The Cafeteria is open to the public and will be kitchen space to hold catering, cooking classes, community needs, etc.
Elderly Housing Development & Operations Corporation (EHDOC) develops and manages safe, secure, and affordable housing for senior citizens across the United States.
EHDOC advocates for the highest quality of life for the seniors of today and tomorrow. EHDOC currently sponsors and manages 53 affordable senior housing communities and has one project under development, comprising nearly 5000 apartments in 15 states as well as Washington DC and Puerto Rico.
EHDOC is a not for profit 501©3 organization
What we need:
Fresh needs $30,000 for this restaurant. Funds will be used to do the following and more
* Get all the proper licenses needed to run a restaurant in Chicago
* Liability insurance, Workers comp insurance, etc
* Buy start up inventory, including Food, paper goods, beverages, etc
* buy the start up equipment that fresh82 is responsible for including Cash register, credit card machine, drink machine, etc
* hire staff and put in place the first recipients of job training
* purchase a company small used vehicle for purchasing and transporting local goods to the restaurant
What you get
Stay tuned as the Perks are added!
Other Ways You Can Help:
- Please Please Spread the word and make some noise about this campaign.
- Commit to telling at least 10 friends about this project and why they should support it. Convince them that all contributions whether $5 or $5,000 matter
- Share this on your facebook, twitter, or any other social media
- Offer your skills, or labor. Do you do web design? logo design? Accounting? or are you handy with a mop? The Cafe needs all the help it can get in every area!
Contact me at:
ChefFresh @ Fresh82 . com
And if you want to contribute another way
Make checks payable to Fresh 82 , LLC
Mailing address
Chef Fresh - Fresh 82 Cafe
c/o Senate Apts
5801-G N. Pulaski Rd
Chicago, IL 60646
