Giving Kitchen founder Jen Hidinger-Kendrick was interviewed as part of Atlanta Magazine’s 60 Voices for 2021 series:
What is Atlanta’s most pressing challenge?
Food-service workers are frontline workers. They may not be administering health services like medical professionals, but these people are still called into work every day. Yet the government hasn’t mandated guidelines to keep them safe. Last July, 50 percent of our clients were Covid-related cases. This year, just in January and February, 65 percent. There is a massive need for recognition to push this along.
What is the city’s most overlooked need?
Atlanta’s greatest strength is its diversity, as it relates to food, culture, music, people, and progressive thought. But with all of that diverse culture and people, I’ve always wondered why there is not an abundance of live music venues—like what I would see in New York or San Francisco. I want to go into the city and, every four blocks or so, be able to say, Oh, there’s a jazz club, let’s go in—or a blues joint. That is one of the biggest missed opportunities in this city.