We will make it work
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AN APPEAL FOR HELP. Many of our neighbors know about Joy’s Kitchen, especially since it used to operate out of Westwoods Community Church right here in the neighborhood. They have moved – twice – and are now offering their food pantry services from Roller City, behind the McDonald’s at Alameda Ave. and Pierce Street. The owners of Roller City offered temporary refuge in a small back room, but can’t afford to keep it there indefinitely. Kathy Stanley, the Joy’s Kitchen founder, recently sent the following letter to Joy’s Kitchen volunteers, supporters, and neighbors.
Friends,
Yesterday, Kelly, the owner of Roller City , called me and said, “We will make it work.”
Joy‘s Kitchen has been under extraordinary pressure, and this brought one piece of real relief: Kelly and Bry have chosen to keep us at Roller City and give us the chance to stabilize instead of shutting the doors while we are still actively feeding people because we can’t pay them rent.
Roller City – Bry and Kelly who own and serve the community there understand the scale of this work. They understand that Joy‘s Kitchen is not incidental to this community. It is a working food access point, a waste-reduction system, and a daily act of mutual aid.
At the same time, Roller City should not be expected to subsidize this work indefinitely. Their willingness to continue housing us is an act of generosity and belief, but it does not remove the reality in front of us.
We need immediate support to keep this program operating.
- We need to pay our staff today and can not.
- We need to pay for recycling services. We have 6 pallets of boxes from collecting food we can’t pay to have removed.
- We need gas for our vehicles. IN REAL TIME. We pick up over 3000 pounds of food in them EVERYDAY to feed the community.
- We need to pay Roller City for electrical and operational space. They have agreed to give us time and dramatically dropped the rental expectation to cover only costs associated with Joy’s being there. This fair price is beyond a blessing.
WE ARE IN THE NEGATIVE TODAY. RIGHT NOW. And yet we are all showing up. We know this work can’t be undone and will exhaust every call to action we have in our lungs. We believe this changes the world and our data proves it.
At the same time we are moving some things towards our already leased Lipan Street launching pad located in the Santa Fe Arts District. Kathy and a private party secured the space in May of 2025 and have given Joy‘s a long term base there. It is not a place that can absorb the public distributions and does not have the building capacity to fully house JOY‘s Rescue operations.
Roller City is holding the immediate need. Lipan is building long-term sustainability as financial support
Lipan has been part of our plan for over a year, and we have stability there through 2030. It is our launching pad: a place for Joy‘s Kitchen offices, will include volunteer engagement, events, education, and supportive partnerships that can help build a more sustainable future around this work. Everything happening at Lipan is meant to strengthen Joy‘s Kitchen financially, operationally, and relationally.
The facts are these:
- Joy‘s Kitchen has endured repeated disruption, multiple moves, and severe financial strain.
- We have continued feeding people through all of it.
- We have continued moving viable food out of the waste stream and into homes.
- We have continued showing up.
This mission is my life’s work. Over the past months, I have gone five pay cycles without pay, and I have exhausted personal resources trying to keep Joy‘s Kitchen going through a third move. I am sharing that not to center myself, but to be honest about where this stands.
What we are asking for now is not abstract support. It is operational support for a program that is already working.
- Joy’s Kitchen feeds thousands of people.
- We recover hundreds of thousands of pounds of viable food.
- We keep good food in circulation.
- We do this through a mutual aid model that is 100% dependent on community support.
TODAY WE NEED YOU
We are asking 200 people to commit to $40 a month through this special recurring link.
If 200 people say yes, we close enough of the gap to stabilize operations and keep going.
If you can cover more than one spot, please do.
If you cannot give right now, please forward this email to three people and ask them to give.
We also need people willing to help carry this work in practical ways. We are restructuring and looking for support in areas including data entry, donor relations, volunteer engagement coordination, basic accounting, partner communications, assistant driving, clothing outreach management, Lipan outreach and neighborhood liaison work, Santa Fe Arts District liaison work, City of Lakewood and special member meeting representation, small business association representation, and fundraising event planning. If you are interested in helping, please fill out the Google form and select the role that best fits your capacity and experience.
Please Fill this out if you can help with these roles. Support and Volunteer Interest Form
This is not about preserving an idea. It is about keeping a proven community food system operating before the strain becomes permanent.
Kelly said, “We will make it work.”
I am asking you to help make that true.
With urgency,
Kathy Stanley
Joy’s Kitchen
Give here NOW: https://joyskitchen.org/donate?id=call-to-action-to-root-joy-april-2025
Volunteer here: joyskitchen.org/volunteer
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