A Joplin non-profit was presented with an award recently highlighting their work building community through food.
KRPS’s Fred Fletcher-Fierro has more.
The Missouri Main Street Connection presented the Outstanding Economic Impact Project award to Downtown Joplin Alliance (DJA) for their Bunny and Jane Newton Community Kitchen during Missouri’s Premier Downtown Revitalization Conference last week.
They were one of 14 communities, individuals, businesses, and organizations from across Missouri that have completed exemplary work in downtown revitalization. The Empire Market opened in 2018 as a year-round “City Market” style farmers’ market offering local goods. DJA initiated development of the Bunny and Jane Newton Community Kitchen as a shared use commercial kitchen inside the store to grow the capacity of the Empire Market.
This project has furthered its mission of “Building Community Through Food” in an area that would otherwise be a food desert, with limited access to fresh, nutritious food.
In 2023, the $350,000 commercial community kitchen facility was completed which brought a shared kitchen to Downtown Joplin that allowed current vendors and small business owners to work in a kitchen that met the health department requirements of their goods.
The Joplin Empire Market is open Saturdays from 10 am to 2 pm.
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