From Bare Roots to the Food Mill

It’s About Healthier Meals for a Healthier Community

Bare Roots Café’s distinctive blend of healthy, locallysourced produce and carefully curated menu items returns to the historic Bibb City area as The Food Mill (3781 2nd Ave). Beautifully reimagined, the café is now also part of UGrow, Inc., a non-profit that works to fight food insecurity.

Director Olivia Amos shares the restaurant’s mission to “connect Columbus residents to locally sourced food by building a collaborative culture where food is medicine.”

Along with partner organizations MercyMed, Truth Spring Academy, Feeding the Valley, Highland Community Church and Take the City, The Food Mill distributes hundreds of no-cost meals each week to families facing food insecurity throughout the community, with a highly affordable urban farmer’s market planned to open next to the café later this summer.

“We knew we had to make the decision to transition the restaurant into the non-profit,” Oliva says, “It just kind of happened organically.”

Olivia found that her passion for what she describes as “culinary medicine” had grown beyond the limits of the original café. With big goals in mind, she partnered with Sharayah Davis, who had recently founded Columbus’ first modern urban farm, Elijah’s Farm, and the non-profit organization UGrow, Inc.

Sharing Food From MercyMed

“She was working at Bare Roots, and I was purchasing produce from Elijah’s Farm for the restaurant,” Olivia recalls, “As we started talking about all the different initiatives, it just made sense for us to combine our efforts together.”

With their shared interest in fighting hunger, they nestled The Food Mill inside UGrow, Inc. in August of last year, teaming up with other local businesses and nonprofit organizations as the community grappled with the year that was 2020.

When the Columbus Botanical Gardens had to pause their Saturday market plans, they began donating produce, leading to their Nourish Columbus partnership with The Food Mill. As other suppliers also began donating, Olivia suddenly found herself with a team of community groups all focused on fighting food insecurity for our community.

Olivia and the team began by donating meals through a buy-two, donate-one program with BWP Cares and Highland Community Church. When students began returning to classrooms, they added a program that provides all 70 students at Truth Spring Academy healthy meals to start each school day.

“Children shouldn’t go hungry,” Olivia says, pointing to studies that suggest “when children have the right nourishment, their test grades improve, their attendance improves, they have a higher likelihood of graduating.”

Because children usually receive one good meal each weekday but can lack nutrition over the weekend, she later partnered with Fox Elementary and began providing a weekend’s worth of meals each Friday for twelve food insecure children and their families.

“These parents are hardworking parents,” she explains, “They just don’t have enough to make ends meet, or to make it through the month in order to be able to provide nourishment for their family. I see a lot of them giving things up.”

While food insecurity can be a complex problem, Olivia and the groups she partners with are working to ensure everyone in our community has access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

Creating delicious items that highlight all the natural flavors of the food with “a touch of southern flair,” The Food Mill also provides catering services, as well as medically tailored meals and family portions. Open Monday - Friday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m, they offer both familiar dishes, like their black pepper sausage biscuits, and new takes, like the pork belly and pepper jelly. For lunch you can also grab the highly coveted 8 oz TurnTime Farms grass-fed ground beef burger with applewood bacon.

The Food Mill 3781 2nd Ave

We at the Local love the meat-stuffed sweet potatoes with that ‘sweet heat’ mustard BBQ sauce just as much as the Hippie Bowl with wild rice, sweet potatoes, fresh vegetables and a yummy verde dressing. Daily specials can include the ever popular chicken basil burger. Their menu combines favorites from the Bare Roots days along with plenty of new options, ensuring anyone can find a healthy dish to fit their tastes and dietary needs.

As they always have, the café uses as much produce from local partner farms as they can, from places like Dew Point Farm in Midtown Columbus, TurnTime Farms in Ellerslie, Jenny Jack Farm in Pine Mountain, MercyMed on 2nd Avenue here in Columbus as well as the Columbus Botanical Garden.

If you’re wondering how to get your own hands on some of this amazing food. Do not fret, as on May 15th the Food Mill will host The Planty Pantry, with a rain date of the 16th.

The event will be an all inclusive celebration of local and alternative food culture, with lots of local farmers, farm tours and fun food eating contests. You’ll not only be able to get your hands on some tasty Food Mill eats, but also sample all types of culinary delights from local vendors, including the Plant Hustle Vegan Bakery, CeCe’s Jackfruit of all trades, Beejou Craft Kombucha, Verily Bakery, the Matcha Garden, the FlavoRite Vegan Food Truck and more. There will also be live music from various artists and plenty of games for the kiddos.

“It’s a breath of fresh air to get to work together with everyone involved,” says Ben Redding, the event organizer. “It’s an honor to be a part of something like this, the community deserves this.”

Look for tickets to go on sale April 15th at getlocaltix.com. You can find more about the Planty Pantry through most popular social media outlets, as well as UGrowinc.org. Proceeds benefit UGrow Inc. and MercyMed’s medically tailored meals program.

For a taste of what to expect, we asked Ben what he loves about The Food Mill.

“It’s a stand out. For me it’s the price point I think of first, it’s doable for my budget. I can get what I would consider a guilty pleasure like the pimento and steak or the biscuits and gravy and not feel literally terrible after,” he points out. “I love that you’re not going to get the same thing every time. They take the time to consider what’s good (in season) and what’s gonna taste good.”

The purpose of the event and the mission is to share not only in the wonder of food but to also highlight a need in the community and to educate about the important issue of food insecurity.

“You went from one in six children being food insecure to one in three,” Oliva explains of just the coronavirus pandemic’s impact.

Luckily, we have a strong community ready to join together.

You can help support The Food Mill and UGrow’s initiatives by spreading awareness, donating online to the non-profit at thefoodmill.org, buying a ticket to the event or coming into the café to have breakfast, lunch or a family portion to take home. Volunteers are always needed and invited to contact Olivia at thefoodmillcolumbus@gmail.com.