As a little girl, I used to sit on my porch watching my community: neighbors grocery shopping, actual taxi cabs on the street, and block club parties that brought everyone together.
When I was incarcerated, I was gone away from my community for a long time. When I came back, I saw that the connections between families and neighborhoods were broken. People like me, with lived experience of incarceration, faced barriers to employment–background checks and prejudice shut us out of opportunities. At one point I even experienced a period of homelessness because of it.
I asked myself, “What happened to the community I grew up in?”
That question led me to co-found ChiFresh Kitchen. My name is Kimberly Britt and I am a co-founder and president of ChiFresh Kitchen, a worker co-op in my hometown of Chicago. We’re a women- and Black-owned business serving fresh, nutritious, and culturally rooted meals to schools, community organizations, and institutions in Chicago.
ChiFresh isn’t just a business. It’s how we show our community what’s possible: jobs that make sense–not just paychecks, but ownership that creates pathways for others facing the same barriers we’ve faced.
To see people in our community thrive and reconnect is everything to me and my team members at ChiFresh. And this is the power of the worker cooperative movement: building businesses that bring us together and create lasting change.
Worker-ownership is life-changing. By making a one-time or monthly donation toward our $15,000 year-end goal, you’ll help us bring cooperative ownership within reach for everyone.
My worker-ownership journey didn’t stop with co-founding ChiFresh. I joined the board of U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives so I can help create opportunities for people like me. Together, we’re setting a bold strategic plan to continue building knowledge and power of worker-ownership with communities of color and our leadership throughout the cooperative movement.
I am excited to be a leader in the worker-ownership and cooperative movement. With the USFWC, we can help more formerly incarcerated people benefit from worker-ownership. We’re not just opening doors – we’re building our own.
Your support helps create leadership opportunities for people like me and builds the infrastructure for worker co-ops to thrive across the country.
Thank you for believing in the power of worker-ownership and supporting the USFWC.
In cooperation,
Kimberly Britt
USFWC Board Member and co-founder of ChiFresh Kitchen
P.S. – Everyone who signs up to give monthly at $15 or more will receive a free “Think Outside the Boss” bandana as a thank you gift. Give today.
