Stake for dinner
PHILLY STAKE'S dinner deal is hard to beat. For the ticket price, diners get a locally-sourced, three-course meal and beer, topped off with a healthy dollop of Stake's secret ingredient: doing good.
While Philly Stake's events revolve around serving food, the organization's philanthropic purpose is to dole out microgrants to a wide array of projects — ranging from public art to urban farming. The Stake moniker is a play on words, referring to a having a stake in the community, the local economy and local food.
At each dinner, 10 groups or individuals present their ideas and the attendees vote for their favorite project. At the end of the meal, the winners are announced and presented with a big sack of cash. The first recipients, Philly Rooted, took home $900. The recipients of the second Stake dinner — Refugee Urban Farm, Warrior Writers and Recycled Artist-In-Residency — split $1,800.
"It's not an epic amount of money, but with the kind of work we're looking to fund, that makes a huge difference," said Kate Strathmann, one of Stake's organizers. "These things are getting exposure they wouldn't otherwise. Even the projects that don't win are being seen by 250 people."
The next Stake dinner is July 17 at Bartram's Garden, but grant-seekers have until 5 p.m. Monday (that's July 4) to submit a proposal. A limited number of presale tickets can be bought through Grid magazine and at Shot Tower Coffee (524 Christian St.). Dinners tend to sell out, so reserve a spot at stakephilly@ gmail.com before showing up hungry.
At each event, a three-course meal, with lots of options for vegetarians, is served. Most of the ingredients come from places like Lancaster and even Philly's urban farms. The menu is dictated by what is in season. Philly Stake usually gets a sponsor for the beer.
"We're all obsessed with our food," Strathmann said. The last Stake involved goodies such as homemade pickles, potato leek soup and roasted pumpkin and chocolate. The menu for the July 17 event includes pork and veggie tamales.
Like many aspects of Stake, the menu is chosen by committee. They have a planning meeting and whittle recipes down after a test dinner.
Keeping the ingredients local is key to Philly Stake's mission. "It fits with this theme of supporting people who may not get funding for their small projects," said urban farmer Eric Blasco, who owns Erb Catering and is one of Stake's chefs. "In turn, we're able to support food businesses around the area. You're helping out the community here, keeping jobs local and supporting the growing food movement."
Philly Stake is not unique; there are more than 40 such programs around the country. Founder Theresa Rose got the idea to start Philly's version after attending the similar FEAST Brooklyn. "I was totally inspired," Rose said about attending the Brooklyn, N.Y., event. Strathmann worked on FEASTs in Brooklyn and Minneapolis before Stake existed, and mentioned a similar, smaller setup in the Pennsylvania suburb of Phoenixville.
Instead of simply getting her friends to help organize, Rose sought volunteers via a listserv so that she could recruit people who were passionate about the project, rather than just buddies who wanted to lend a hand. "We're all basically strangers," Rose said, adding that the diversity of the volunteers means that everyone has different skills, allowing the event to run more smoothly. Rose and the 19 other foodies hosted the first Stake dinner last September with the help of a grant from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage's Philadelphia Exhibition Initiative.
As the Public Art Project Manager for the city's Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, Rose knows firsthand how many deserving projects are going on around the city that don't have the clout to get a grant. Stake's purpose is to give these projects money, without the red tape that comes with many grants.
"The thing that's so attractive is that it's such an easy application process," said Nic Esposito, whom Rose calls a "rock star urban farmer." Along with Erica Smith, Esposito founded urban farming group Philly Rooted. They used their Stake money to build a water irrigation system they designed themselves that allows them to catch rainwater off of SEPTA's 46th Street station.
Esposito said that applying for grants is sometimes more complicated and time-consuming than the amount of money received is worth. But Stake's application is simple and involves answering four questions in 50 to 100 words: Describe the project, how the money will be used, a short bio and why the project is important to the community. Send that info off to phillystake@gmail.com, along with four images that could be used on a poster, and the application is complete.
The only requirement is that the project creatively engages the community. The winners must also come back to the next Stake dinner and describe their progress.
"It's a really cool low-impact way to get a relatively small amount of money," Esposito said.
Rose said that Philly Stake is one of the few dinner-party organizations that receives more project proposals than it can handle. "It's exciting to have 30 proposal of things that have nothing to do with each other," Strathmann said. To keep things fair, the applicants are whittled down through the most unbiased way possible: The group picks out of a hat.
Philly Stake also strives for geographical diversity by moving venues to different city neighborhoods and always reserving one presentation slot to a project that would benefit the host community. They're still looking for good applicants doing work in the Bartram's Garden neighborhood of Southwest Philadelphia.
It's important for Philly Stake that they engage every pocket of Philadelphia and the projects that tend to fare best in the voting demonstrate a tangible effect on their neighborhood and Philly as a whole.
Philly Stake is there to give these projects the push they need. "A city like Philly has so much going on, to have something that is so grass-roots and project-based [is important]," Strathmann said. "We're really about giving money to projects to get off the ground and there are not a lot of opportunities to do that." *
Philly Stake dinner, Bartram's Garden, 54th Street and Lindbergh Boulevard, 5-8 p.m. July 17, $10-$20, 215-729-5281, phillystake.org.
