Projects that are equal parts delicious and conscientious.
by Maya Dangerfield
Kickstarter has been in the news a lot recently and not for good reasons. Since the popular crowdfunding website loosened its proposal standards, a floodgate of uninspired and somewhat ridiculous proposals have saturated the website. The food section, in particular, is inundated with aimless projects that are easily solved by a trip to the local grocery store. The most famous of these proposals—a man’s humble goal to make potato salad—garnered $50,000. For foodies looking to support the next great food project, or help expand a food business, these proposals while humorous, hide the projects that hope to do a lot of good. Honest Cooking has found four great food-centric proposals that deserve special attention. Whether they’re providing healthy food to the homeless or ensuring sustainable farming practices, these projects use food to improve the lives of people in their community. We think that’s great. Check out these four projects and help turn these food centric proposals into delicious (and conscientious) realities. 
1.Radical Hospitality and The Rooster Soup Company
Federal Donuts is a popular Philadelphia restaurant that specializes in donuts, fried chicken, and coffee. With five extremely popular locations Federal Donuts goes through a lot of chickens—1000 lbs. of high quality chicken a week, in fact. Rather than waste the unusable chicken backs and bones, Federal Donuts decided to turn chicken waste into a delicious chicken stock. Under the proposed Rooster Soup Company, 100% of the profits from their chicken soup would be donated to the Broad Street Ministry’s Hospitality Collaborative which serves over 1,200 Philadelphia residents weekly.
Time Left to Donate: 8 days
Created by Susan Hoss, Look, Cook, and Eat is a digital cooking magazine designed for individuals with intellectual or learning disabilities. The bright, visually heavy application would allow subscribers to choose their meals from an updating monthly menu. The application would provide recipes along with instructions on buying food, tools to use and video instructions for meal preparation. Hoss developed the product with Main Dish Media to teach people with intellectual disabilities fundamental cooking skills without relying on processed or prepackaged food.
Time Left to Donate: 41 days
Vega Coffee cuts out the array of middleman between coffee growers and coffee sellers. The innovate project trains farmers in roasting coffee, new techniques and market trends, then connects farmer’s directly with consumers worldwide. The online marketplace, dubbed the Vega Marketplace, will allow customers to search for farmers and select coffee based on personal taste preferences. Based in Nicaragua’s Miraflor region the company hopes their project will provide more stability and economic independence for the region’s coffee producers.
Time Left to Donate: 28 days
Lucky Nickel Ranch is an incubator farm for veterans looking to start their own small scale farm operations. Operating out of Eloy Arizona the farm was established by Michael McKenzie, a Marine Corps veteran whose farm received an organic certification in 2006. Already distributing produce to CSAs ,Farmer’s Markets, and regional Whole Foods, McKenzie hopes to expand his veteran education program through the purchase of equipment like a harvester and a mobile chicken coop.
Time Left to Donate: 16 days
