Innovative UC start-up gives back to community during COVID-19 crisis

Students start non-profit to feed those in need, support area restaurants

By Adam Cline

When the area nonprofit Locally Fed launched in the spring, things happened fast.

Created by University of Cincinnati students and graduates, the organization was designed as an innovative solution to a unique challenge: helping feed Cincinnati during the global COVID-19 pandemic and support restaurants hit hard by the crisis.

To get started, UC College of Arts and Sciences graduate Madalyn Norman and UC students Madi Rinaldi and Emily Buck solicited  donations from friends and family to buy meals from local eateries. They also reached out to different publications to get the word out and keep donations coming in.

Madalyn Norman, UC College of Arts and Sciences Journalism graduate who helped start Locally Fed.

Madalyn Norman, UC College of Arts and Sciences Journalism graduate who helped start Locally Fed.

Norman says she was “baffled by how fast everything happened and how much attention it got. … It’s crazy how we have accomplished a lot in such a short amount of time.”

With Rinaldi as the group’s founder, Norman serves as communicator, while Buck lends her talent as graphic designer. Locally Fed uses donations to pay full price for meals from local restaurants that they  distribute to people most in need, such as Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, whose nurses tend coronavirus patients; Ronald McDonald House, helping with higher-risk, critically ill children; and Shelterhouse, the former Drop Inn Center, a homeless shelter feeling the pinch in supplies and volunteers due to the pandemic.

Locally Fed has worked with Honey Child Artisan Pops and the Thunderdome Restaurant Group, which includes local eateries such as The Eagle, Pepp & Dolores and Maplewood Kitchen and Bar.

At first, Locally Fed partnered with the restaurants with which the charity's members were most familiar. But the list of partner restaurants grew.

After the killing of George Floyd spurred Black Lives Matter protests around the country, the charity reached out to black-owned restaurants such as Cream + Sugar Coffeehouse in Evanston and Alabama Que in Clifton.

Inspired by the coast

Rinaldi was inspired to start Locally Fed after becoming familiar with Support + Feed, a Los Angeles-based organization with a similar mission which serves L.A., New York and Philadelphia. Rinaldi liked the idea of serving the local community and recruited Norman and Buck to help.

The three women work as volunteers.

“All the money goes straight to the restaurants. And all the food goes to the organizations,” Norman says.

Locally Fed is entirely volunteer-based. Norman says they have had a couple of other volunteers help with some events, but they do most of the work themselves.

Watching the community come together through Locally Fed has been an amazing experience, she said. All the restaurants and organizations they have worked with have been extremely grateful.

“It was just cool to see more people get involved other than just us three,” Norman says.

All of Locally Fed’s partners are “there to bring different things to the table but for one mission — to help people in a time of need.”

Applying skills from the classroom

UC journalism professor Jenny Wohlfarth, who taught Norman in a feature writing class, says she was “not at all surprised” to see her involved in something entrepreneurial.

“The compelling stories she pursued in class reflected her keen interest in the well-being of other people, and the importance of pursuing equality and fairness for marginalized communities in society,” Wohlfarth says.

“Like other disciplines taught in A&S, journalism majors can apply the skills they learned during their years at UC in many meaningful ways after graduation," she says.

Wohlfarth says Norman is a perfect example of that.

“I am so proud to see Madalyn — and her UC classmates Madi and Emily — have such a positive impact in our community. It takes a lot of gumption, hard work and commitment to create a nonprofit organization, raise funds, and create community partnerships,” Wohlfarth says.

It takes a lot of gumption, hard work and commitment to create a nonprofit organization, raise funds and create community partnerships.

Jenny Wohlfarth, UC journalism professor

Wohlfarth says Locally Fed has responded quickly and efficiently to the critical needs we are facing right now because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The group has demonstrated why it's important to support independently owned small businesses.

Looking to the future

“We’ve kind of taken a pause because we don’t have enough donations coming in right now, unfortunately. We have a couple of pending donations. We’re really trying to branch out from asking friends and family,” says Norman.

Locally Fed’s eventual plan, once they begin to receive enough money through donations, is to partner with a different restaurant and organization every week. “We kind of got steady for a while and then dropped off, but we’re hoping to pick back up again soon,” says Norman. Anyone can donate through the Locally Fed website

Norman states Locally Fed’s future is still uncertain. “As for the future, we’re not exactly sure. We don’t know how far this is going to go past COVID or how long COVID is even going to really be around,” says Norman. “It’s been really exciting, and I’m hoping we can just help people for as long as we can.”

Featured image at top: Restaurants have been severely impacted by COVID-19. Photo/Queven/Pixabay.

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