Eat Like it Matters pop-up event to be held on July 18

July 8, 2026

Press release from Grassroots and Gainesville Housing Authority

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – We’re so excited to announce the opening of Grassroots, the first community kitchen in East Gainesville!!

Chef Carl Watts of Underground Kitchen and the Gainesville Housing Authority have teamed up to begin a nutritional awareness campaign in East Gainesville that will feature quarterly pop-up community DINNERS (free to the public), locally grown organic vegetables, and homemade provisions for our community to enjoy and explore with their families and friends.

Grassroots will have several components, all geared toward facilitating a mindset of “eating like it matters.” Our mission is to provide the best quality ingredients to our community, while also maintaining a position of readiness for times of need for our neighbors.

We’ll have provisions/relief for immediate support to our over 200 residents at Pine Meadows, Lake Terrace, and Caroline Manor, and we are prepared to scale to upwards of 1000 meals DAILY (within 24-48 hours) to meet our county’s needs as well. These services will remain activated year-round to offer community relief for anything ranging from government SHUTDOWNS and major power outages to natural disasters.

Prayerfully, in lieu of any of the above issues, Grassroots will function as a shared kitchen, mentoring new youth and existing entrepreneurs in culinary development. Our youth will also run an AFTER-SCHOOL provision market, where they will sell packaged goods and seasonal provision boxes of ingredients grown and manufactured by our local youth.

We’re so excited to begin this new journey with our amazing partners at the Gainesville Housing Authority and all the love/support our community provides to us.

We hope to see you all at the first “Eat like it matters” pop-up on July 18th, 2026, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at 2626 E University Ave, Gainesville, FL 32641. Food will be first come, first served, so please arrive timely to enjoy a delicious farm-to-table dinner with us!!