Mark Bittman's Community Kitchen is Redefining 'Good Food'

"Bittman saw a fundamental flaw in the food system: While high-end restaurants can serve nutritious food, treat workers fairly and source responsibly, they are still exclusive spaces, inaccessible to most people.For that to change, Bittman argues, the profit motive has to be removed altogether. "You have to be willing to lose money if you want to make good food accessible to everyone," he says. To that end, diners pay for their meal according to a sliding scale, rather than set prices on a menu."

"The U.S. food system is a study in contradictions: food is everywhere, yet millions go hungry or malnourished. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 47.4 million people lived in food-insecure households in 2023. The USDA defines food insecurity as "limited or uncertain availability" of nutritious foods.This crisis appears to be escalating. The American diet continues to be dominated by unhealthy ultra-processed foods (foods that are high in sugar, fat and/or salt)."

Community Kitchen is a nonprofit dining space on the Lower East Side that aims to make nutritious, responsibly sourced meals accessible beyond exclusive high-end restaurants. Conceived nearly five years ago by Mark Bittman, the project removes the profit motive by using a sliding-scale payment system so diners pay according to ability. A multidisciplinary team of food-justice leaders, chefs, hospitality experts and policy strategists developed five core pillars addressing pricing, sourcing, labor and service. The pilot restaurant launched on September 19. The U.S. food system shows contradictions: abundant food coexists with widespread food insecurity and a diet dominated by ultra-processed foods.

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