Families experience affordability and quality of life as ONE problem
Housing. Transportation. Energy. Child care. Health care. Food. The costs and challenges of everyday life come together around a single kitchen table.
Yet the policies, programs, and institutions designed to address these pressures too often operate separately. Families don't experience life that way. A rising utility bill means less money for groceries. A long commute can make affordable child care impossible. A home damaged by extreme weather can erase years of savings.
The Kitchen Table Project starts with a simple idea: What if we organized our efforts around the way people actually live?
We're bringing together people, ideas, and practical solutions to make everyday life more affordable, expand opportunity, and give people a greater voice and stake in their futures.
We believe that starting with what matters to families—and connecting solutions that are too often pursued separately—can produce better results for people and communities.
Our goal is simple: Make everyday life more affordable today and expand opportunity for tomorrow. Starting at the kitchen table.
Shelley Poticha, Founder
Shelley Poticha is a strategist and policy advisor who helps civic and government leaders build communities where all people can lead healthy, affordable, and thriving lives.
Her 40-year career has led to posts inside and outside government, including at the Natural Resources Defense Council, where she stood up the environmental movement’s first People and Communities program, fought to get lead out of drinking water, and worked with over 50 cities and 20 states to design and implement solutions at the intersection of economic prosperity and climate justice. She served in President Obama’s Administration as a Senior Advisor, leading the Partnership for Livable Communities and working with over 140 local, regional, and tribal governments to adopt sustainability strategies. Shelley has started and led numerous nonprofits, including Reconnecting America, the Center for Transit-Oriented Development, Transportation4America, and the Congress for the New Urbanism.
Shelley is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Urban Institute and sits on the board of Lawyers for Good Government.
She founded The Kitchen Table Project to build the capacity of local and state leaders to reduce the cost of living and improve the quality of life for working families.