Queen City Kitchen was founded as the Over-the-Rhine Kitchen in 1976 by Fr. Thomas Bokenkotter and his colleagues. Fr. Bokenkotter had visited Dorothy Day’s House of Hospitality in New York City and realized Cincinnati needed a kitchen to provide a meal without obligatory religious service for the 80% of the 10,000 residents in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood living in poverty.

Fr. Bokenkotter recruited volunteers, and with just $700 he began serving meals out of a building on Main Street. A second location opened in Walnut Hills in 1984. The Over-the-Rhine kitchen moved several times before settling, in 2003, into a location at 1620 Vine Street. That location closed in 2022. The Walnut Hills Kitchen is currently housed at the Walnut Hills Baptist Church and operates five days a week.

In 2018, the organization changed its name to Queen City Kitchen to better reflect its mission to serve all Cincinnati neighbors. 

Fr. Bokenkotter taught that people experience poverty for many reasons. While we seek larger answers, we can act to alleviate hunger. This reflection continues to inspire the work of Queen City Kitchen today.

Queen City Kitchen

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