How to Support Boarding Axe Kitchen (without donations!)

 

Introduction

 

This roadmap outlines how Boarding Axe Kitchen is intended to grow over time, not as a timeline or a set of promises, but as a way to explain priorities, values, and decision-making as the work evolves.

 

The phases described below reflect a progression from consistency and reliability, toward sustainability, expanded capacity, and eventually deeper forms of direct service. Progress between phases is not linear, and elements of earlier and later phases often overlap. Each phase is dependent on the one before it being stable and sustainable.

 

At present, Boarding Axe Kitchen is primarily operating within Phase 2, focused on strengthening the connection between the food we cook and the documentation that supports it. Foundational work from Phase 1 continues, while groundwork for later phases is being developed deliberately and without urgency.

 

This roadmap exists to provide clarity, both for ourselves and for others, about how the work is intended to grow, and just as importantly, how it is not intended to grow.
 

Phase 1. Establishing Phase

 

• Incorporate

• Show up consistently

• Maintain monthly cooking and meal distribution

• Learn what scales and what doesn’t

• Prioritizing reliability over volume

• Documenting selectively, not exhaustively 

 

“Right now, the focus is consistency, cooking regularly, working within constraints, and learning what it actually takes to prepare food for others in a way that’s sustainable.”

 

Phase 2. Strengthening the Loop between Food and Content

 

Let the digital work begin to support the kitchen work

 

• Publishing recipes on the blog

• Using the website to document processes

• Content revenue to offset costs

• Improve internal systems before increasing volume

 

“The next step is tightening the connection between the food we cook and the content we publish, so that documenting the work eventually helps support the work. This is the content-to-community funding model we are hoping to develop and what we mean when we say “Food Supporting Food””

 

Phase 3. Monetization

 

When eligible, this site will use advertising through programs like Google AdSense and the YouTube Partner Program to help support ongoing operations and community meals.

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Website Monetization

 

The goal of website monetization isn’t scale, it’s sustainability. If the content provides enough value to attract consistent traffic. Ad revenue can help to offset costs without asking directly for donations. 

 

Focus

• Publish written content such as;

  • Recipes

  • Blogs

  • How-to Articles

• Build meaningful internal structure and SEO over time

• Grow traffic organically through usefulness and not promotion

• Apply for Google Adsense once the site is eligible and traffic is sufficient to justify it

 

Youtube Monetization

 

Use video to document, explain and contextual the work. Youtube monetization is a long-term outcome to providing useful, watchable content, not a primary objective. If and when those thresholds are met, monetization becomes another way the documentation can help support the community impact work. 

 

Focus

• Publish cooking and food-related videos that stand on their own as useful content

• Build an audience gradually through consistency and clarity

• Reach Youtube Partner Program requirements organically;

  • 1,000 subscribers

  • 4,000 watch hours

 

IRS 501(c)3

 

Formalize the organization once it is financially and operationally credible. Applying for 501(c)3 or similar status makes the most sense once the work and revenue systems have demonstrated stability. At that point, federal nonprofit status becomes a tool, opening access to grants and partnerships rather than a starting condition. 

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We are incorporated in the State of Vermont as a Domestic Non-profit Corporation on August 1, 2023. ​​​

 

Phase 4. Expanding Capacity Without Changing Values

 

• More intentional menus and coordination

• More structured volunteer help and systems

• Better use of time, ingredients, and preparation flow

 

“Growth, if it happens, should look like more consistency and better systems, not bigger promises or faster expansion.”

 

Phase 5. Direct Service

 

• On-site meals or community service

• Hospitality, not just food distribution

• Zero-dollar pricing as principle, not a gimmick

 

“Long term, the goal is to serve food directly, not just through distribution, but as a place where care and craft are offered without asking for anything in return”

 

Phase 6. Fully integrated “Soup Kitchen Model”

 

• Professional standards

• Thoughtful menus based on seasonal availability

• Dignity first service

 

“This is intended to bring culinary arts and hospitality craft to community service. The purpose is to provide value and experience up front and then ask for nothing in return.”

 

Phase 7. Culinary Institute & Workforce Development

 

• Food safety training 

  • ServSafe Certification

• Job training pathways

  • CPR, First-Aid Training

• Culinary education

  • Certificate Programs

  • Internships

  • Job Experience

 

“At its furthest extent, this becomes a place not only for food and community service, but for education and job training, addressing directly some of the underlying causes of food insecurity” 

 

Phase 8… Aspirational Capacity

 

In a scenario where resources were no longer the limiting factor, for example, if significant funding were suddenly available. Like maybe, we won the lottery or some long lost relative willed us millions of dollars. All of the above could be achieved with the addition of a commissary and food truck. This would allow meals, training, and direct service to reach communities impacted by circumstance, displacement or natural disaster. 

 

This isn’t a requirement for the work to matter, but it’s simply an illustration of how the same values could be extended if constraints were removed, and funding were limitless

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Last Updated: 01/09/2026