community
partnership initiative
Our partnership initiative aims to implement diverse and collaborative programming with local food initiatives, particularly those that serve the communities whose culinary legacies inspire us. Our mission is to cultivate robust and meaningful relationships within the community by fostering a sustainable ecosystem of growth and exchange through the provision of hands-on culinary training, education, volunteer work, and financial contribution.
We believe that food and food sharing have the capability of creating space for both personal and collective growth, for engendering compassion, and for building stronger, more empathetic relationships and practices within our communities.
RHIZOSPHERE—community as connection
We like to think of these partnerships as cultivating a RHIZOSPHERE—the soil region where the dynamic interplay of root matter, soil composition, and metabolites (the stuff that’s made when enzymes break down organic tissue) creates some of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. We want to consider the social implications of sustainability and nourishment through communal gathering and the sharing of food. For us, this means creating an integrated partnership where meaningful connection and contribution allow for generative growth and efforts toward a more sustainable future.
— SkyART
With creativity at the center of everything, SkyART provides free, safe, open spaces where people are empowered and connections are made.
We had the incredible honor of partnering with SkyART for their Family Table: Hearth community dinner in conjunction with ReSOURCE, a group exhibition with the South Side Community Art Center.
TXA TXA, along with chefs Chris Tejeda & Max Kolker were invited to collaborate with three of SkyART’s own Junior Chefs to conceive, prepare, and serve a soup course as part of a conversation on creating social change in the community through service and shared meals.
We teamed up with who came to the kitchen studio to prep for the event before sitting down to share in a family meal with our team. Ashen’s creation came through the poetic thoughtfulness of their roots, resources, and familiar flavors inspired by what they had available growing up. ‘ROOTS of GRATITUDE’ — curried carrot + potato, coconut, and puff pastry.
The most remarkable collaborative experiences teach you about yourself through the eyes of others. And this is what makes SkyART a symbiotic pulse within the community. An institution that provides a diverse range of arts and culinary programming for young people in Chicago’s underserved neighborhoods, providing a safe and accessible space for youth to explore and nurture community through creativity.
— global gardens
located in Albany Park, Global Gardens dedicates plots to over 75 refugees from around the world.
In 2024 TXA TXA made it a priority to focus on not only learning and uplifting Chicago based farms but also creating space, conversation, and programming around what they do within their community, much like what TXA TXA focuses on doing in ours— using food as an opportunity to bring folks together. Throughout these relationships we want to offer more than just financial support (some of you have helped us with donated wine "sales" during supper club) but also offer things like volunteer service, goods and materials.
>>> more about Global Gardens and their goals within the community :
A vacant lot transformed into a vibrant farm in which 75+ refugees grow vegetables in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood.
Striving to improve access to fresh vegetables for newly arrived refugee families and their urban neighbors
Feed the souls of displaced farmers through re-connection with the soil and food production
Provide supplemental income for participating refugee farmers and foster new, refugee-operated farms.
Farmers grow for sale at farmers markets, restaurants, our CSA program, and other wholesale buyers. Market farmers also donate to various food pantries and are reimbursed for their donations through the support of Conagra Brands Foundation.