Early in 2023, Downtown Kansas City honored Shanita McAfee-Byrant with an Urban Hero Award, and it’s easy to see why. A KC native and civic-minded chef, McAfee-Bryant has been a chef and restaurant owner in the area, as well as board member for Harvester’s, the Greater KC Food Policy Coalition, NourishKC, and Lazarus Ministries KC. Selected to attend the James Beard Foundation’s Chef Bootcamp for Policy and Change, she also attended the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. But in Kansas City, she is perhaps best-known as the founder and executive director of The Prospect KC.
The Prospect KC serves Kansas City’s Eastside and was founded in 2019 as a solution to the hunger, homelessness, and poverty that results from inequitable food systems. The social enterprise hopes to create lasting change through their impressive slate of social programs aimed at culinary job training, nutrition education, and food access. Within The Prospect is The Spot, a culinary space featuring a café, coffeeshop, and fresh grocer section. The Prospect KC and McAfee-Bryant celebrate the grand opening of The Spot this weekend. Missouri State Senator Barbara Washington presented a check and gave remarks at The Spot’s ribbon cutting on July 28.
“It’s been a lengthy journey to get up and running, but we’re so incredibly excited to celebrate the grand opening of The Spot Kansas City,” says McAfee-Bryant. Female chefs across the country share McAfee-Bryant’s vision in fighting food apartheid within their communities, and the chef and activist has invited some of them (and the public) to a five-course Party With a Purpose fundraising dinner benefiting The Prospect KC’s food insecurity initiatives. This “La Vie en Rose” birthday celebration includes dinner, pairings, dessert, and live music by Malek Azrael & The Vibez. Suggested dress is cocktail pink!
Invited chefs include Ji Hye Kim of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Vicky Colas of Broward County, Florida, Adrian Lipscombe of the Forty Acres Project, Toni Elkhouri of Melbourne, Florida, The Prospect KC’s own Terra Rogers and Stephanie Echeverry, and Mari Matsumoto from Kansas City’s Lula Southern Cookhouse. This star-studded roster of activist women chefs will create a global-inspired birthday dinner, starting with a global mezza and Korean chicken wings. Red snapper, mango lassi granita, and jerk short rib are sure to delight the senses before finishing off with a peach miso ice cream.
“We invite Kansas City to invest in Black-owned businesses and nonprofits using food to uplift and unite against food apartheid by creating culinary jobs, advancing nutrition education, and creating a gathering place to nourish a sense of community,” says McAfee-Bryant. “The Prospect KC’s goal is to help others who are navigating life’s bumps—whether caused by single motherhood, the pandemic, food insecurity, former incarceration, lack of housing, and more—through our innovative culinary-focused venture.”
More details about the July 29 dinner here.