The first annual Crossroads Community Food Fair is scheduled for Sunday, May 22, opposite the Takoma Streetery at the intersection of Laurel and Carroll avenues, according to an announcement from the Crossroads Community Food Network.
The event will feature products from more than 15 Takoma Park-based entrepreneurs, including tacos, pupusas, artisan chocolates, baked goods, bowls and salads and more.
A number of the products will be from the food micropreneurs who operate out of the Takoma Park Silver Spring Community Kitchen, and many producers will be at the pop-up to meet community members.
The Community Kitchen opened in September 2017 to provide additional microenterprise support to entrepreneurs who didn’t have access to a licensed commercial kitchen.
The venture grew out of the Crossroads Farmers Market, which was the reason the Crossroads Community Food Network was founded, Executive Director Christie Balch told the Source at the time. The group discovered that a number of customers wanted to start a food business of their own and sell at the market.
“We had to say ‘no’ to everyone because they either weren’t using a licensed kitchen, or they didn’t have the right product ideas . . . or they didn’t have the right certification,” Balch said.
It is housed in the former kitchen of the Takoma Park Presbyterian Church, which wasn’t being used. The church offered to remodel the kitchen, recruited a coalition to raise about $400,000 to get it done and turned it over to the food network.
The food fair will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and also include live music from Mr. Gabe.
Crossroads Community Food Network graphic
Source file photo of Nancia Sical, owner of Nancia’s Antojitos and one of the kitchen’s first participants, roasting tomatoes and tomatillos and doing other prep for her chicken tamales.
