Planet Worth brings vegan meals and a listening ear to the streets

When Vegan Meals to the Streets was created in the summer of 2020, the organization began with a goal of feeding healthy meals to 100 people a week. In a modest kitchen, the co-founders and friends would prepare the food themselves, then venture out looking for people who might need it and ask community members to direct them to additional individuals in need.

With fewer groups doing direct outreach and services at the height of the pandemic, as well as shelters being closed and more people forced outside, there was even greater incentive to take action. What was once known as Vegan Meals to the Streets is now a nonprofit called Planet Worth.

Planet Worth has expanded, not only to keep providing the healthy, cruelty-free and sustainable meals that got them started, but also other much-needed resources and supplies to unhoused and low-income people in Seattle such as PPE, personal care items, clothing, and much more. Since its inception over a year ago, Planet Worth co-founders and leaders John Kennedy and Milly Ayotte, along with a small team of volunteers, have cooked and served thousands of meals, distributing them to different areas of high need.

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Each week, these dedicated altruists feed between 150-180 people fresh food made from organic vegan produce. The menu changes weekly and is carefully and creatively planned for taste, nutrition and variety.

On Sundays, Planet Worth receives leftover produce from local organic farmers. During warmer months, donations from local gardens also trickle in, supplementing the seasonal fare. Cooking is on Tuesdays and distribution begins every Wednesday at 11 a.m. and can go all the way until 7 p.m. or later.

True to their mission of being planet-conscious, the containers and utensils are all biodegradable. Volunteers are also known to bring large jugs of water to help keep people more hydrated and healthy. On days when there are leftover meals or gleaned produce, it is delivered to local food banks (in 2021 alone, Planet Worth donated over 3,000 pounds of produce), and to the WHEEL shelter, a low-barrier women’s shelter in Seattle’s First Hill. This both assists additional community members and drastically reduces food waste. Planet Worth also works with other groups in Seattle that have a vested interest in improving the community. They partner with Plymouth Church in downtown Seattle—which is where they currently prepare meals using the church’s sizeable kitchen—as well as orchards and farms.

Kennedy feels immense appreciation for food providers, and also notes a relationship of reciprocity, "We’re taking away the need [for them] to proactively do something with the food that’s reaching the end of its life. And then also, we’re able to show them every week what we made, so they are able to see the impact that their donations are having. That’s another way of involving the local community in giving the power to give what they want or can, and being able to see the impact."

Motivated by the purest of intentions, Kennedy and Ayotte are doing this to help a portion of King County’s nearly 41,000 unhoused people and help the environment. Though their meals are free of animal products, they are not trying to proselytize about veganism. Still, some minds have been changed in the process, like the case of one man who reported not only a full belly but feeling healthier and losing weight from this diet of food "from the earth," whereas before he had lived on cheeseburgers, beer and milk.

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The co-founders also seem free of a savior complex, preferring instead to engage with the community they are serving, involving them and listening to these neighbors as much as possible. It was through this practice, in fact, that Ayotte and Kennedy started to address needs beyond nutrition as time has went on, learning about what resources would be most beneficial.

After Seattle was hit hard last year by its biggest snowstorm in decades, Ayotte and Kennedy quickly mobilized, gathering and distributing warm coats, gloves, hats and blankets, in addition to extra food. One man reportedly said that those extra meals saved his life that week, as he could not access other means of subsistence during that time. Another man they spoke to said it was hard for many unhoused people to find firewood, and even if they found some in a nearby dumpster, it was hard and heavy to transport in large quantities—so Kennedy arranged to drive wood over to them so that they could build fires.

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Planet Worth wasn’t needed only in cold weather—last summer’s record-breaking heatwave once again brought the reality of essentials other than food to the forefront, casting more light on the wide chasm between the fortunate and the disadvantaged. It is eye-opening for the duo, who are reminded of social inequities on a regular basis. It is no secret that Kennedy and Ayotte have changed lives, but they remain forever changed in return.

They never expect a thank you for their labor—though they are always grateful to receive positive feedback from the people they are helping, like the man they recount who told them, “You guys make the world go round.”

For Ayotte, though, they are not exceptional; they insist that anyone can do this. Moreover, everyone should, "[The organization is] empowering all of us to remember our power to share the resources that we have, no matter how little we have. We know that these resources exist in the world, right? We know we have enough. We just need to get it to the right people. We just need to get it into the correct hands. So, we are not here to gatekeep who needs what, but we are here to look and talk to our neighbors, identify what they need and then, give that them in the most planet-conscious way possible, the most sustainable way possible and the most, like truly good way... It is really about identifying where there is excess and moving it to where there’s not excess and that definitely lies in the hands of the individual... It is where our world needs to be stepping in order for us to survive, so we’re definitely keeping that future in mind,” they said.

Planet Worth is always looking for more volunteers to support its mission. They also accept donations of goods, as well as monetary donations. Learn more at www.planetworth.earth