ENGLEWOOD — With the future of federal food assistance benefits still uncertain, rabbi and Mothers Against Senseless Killings founder Tamar Manasseh has launched the Tiny Kitchen Project to help keep schoolchildren and families fed in Englewood.
Dozens of neighbors have signed on to help so far, Manasseh told Block Club. They’ll be cooking meals in their kitchens and bringing them to the MASK Peace Academy, 7500 S. Stewart Ave., where the meals will be distributed to over 100 children and families five days a week. The only ask, she said, is that recipients clean the food containers and bring them to use for the next day’s meal.
On weekends, families will go home with milk and cereal to help tide them over, said Manasseh.
“Our mission is simple, but urgent. We’re working to keep violence at bay by preventing the desperation that comes when there’s no food in the house. Hunger breeds hopelessness, and hopelessness can breed violence. We’re stepping in to stop that cycle before it starts,” she said.
Tiny Kitchen Project volunteer Renita Gayles (left) and MASK founder Tamar Manasseh prepare meals for kids and families at the MASK Peace Academy in Englewood Nov. 3, 2025. Credit: Jamie Nesbitt Golden/Block Club Chicago / Block Club Chicago
The community leader is joining a growing effort from people across the city to feed families after the Trump administration threatened to freeze SNAP benefits this month.
Manasseh is funding most of the new initiative herself, but she also found a partner in Bishop Johnny Banks Sr., a pastor at nearby Wayside Chapel and executive director of A Knock At Midnight, a nonprofit that helps formerly incarcerated residents get back on their feet. When Banks heard about the Tiny Kitchen Project, he called Manasseh offering money raised by his congregation, he said.
Banks told Block Club he has little use for politics, preferring to focus on helping those around him.
“I thought it was a great idea. Some members of the church have already volunteered to cook some soup or make some chili, whatever they can do to support. As a culture, we like to cook,” said Banks.
Roughly 1.2 million Chicagoans have been affected by the delay in SNAP benefits, with that number jumping to nearly 2 million statewide. While the Trump administration announced Monday that the program will be “partially funded” this month following judicial orders, it could take weeks for residents to receive the funds.
A spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Human Services told Fox 32 Chicago that the decision from the White House could make it “significantly more complicated for states to issue the funds.”
Manasseh said she’s reached out to city officials who have expressed interest in helping, and she’s still accepting donations from neighbors.
Food containers filled with chicken and mostaccioli are stacked on a table and ready to go to the 150 children and families in line at the MASK Peace Academy for food. Credit: Jamie Nesbitt Golden / Block Club Chicago
Renita Gayles, a volunteer with the Tiny Kitchen Project, said it was an “automatic count me in” when Manasseh asked for her help. The homemaker referenced “Stone Soup,” one of her favorite children’s books in which people come together — each with a single ingredient for the soup — to feed an entire village.
“I’ve run my own tiny kitchen because I’m a mom who is just connected when my kids come out to play. I’m out here cooking, so I feed the block. [The Tiny Kitchen Project] just makes sense. It’s how Black families have always done it. We’re innately village-minded people,” said Gayles.
While the overall status of SNAP remains uncertain, the rabbi said she’s focused on making sure her community survives in the interim. She’s been amazed by the showing of gratitude and of action, she said. Over 150 people received their first free meal Monday: chicken and mostaccioli, the latter straight from her oven and prepared by her son, Max.
“This isn’t just about feeding people. It’s about proving that when communities come together, we can take care of our own. We can build peace one meal at a time,” said Manasseh.
To learn more or to to support the initiative, visit www.tinykitchenproject.org.
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