Rhonda Sweet prepares food at The Mix Feeding Kitchen, located at White Rock United Methodist Church. Photography by Victoria Gomez.
Granite countertops and tile backsplash are missing. Cooking tools and dishes aren’t stored in custom cabinets. Guests can’t gather around a spacious island for refreshments and conversation.
But to Rhonda Sweet, The Mix Kitchen is a dream kitchen.
Located in the basement of White Rock United Methodist Church, on Old Gate Lane near Diceman Drive, the commercial kitchen provides entrepreneurs round-the-clock access to equipment and space they may not have in their own homes.
Sweet was hired by nonprofit Missional Wisdom Foundation, which also used to manage coworking space and artist studios at the church, to transform the kitchen. She converted a pantry into a walk-in refrigerator, replaced the dishwasher and added equipment to supplement the stove and pizza oven that were there.
Now, she’s the managing director of the kitchen, which opened in 2017, and she shares her lifetime of knowledge with members.
“When you get the Mix, you get a resource center,” Sweet says.
Her love of food started during childhood, sitting around her grandparents’ table for family meals. Though the job of host was passed down to her from her grandmother and mother, real experience came while she was working for her stepfather, who owned a catering company.
Later, Sweet spent 17 years with Boston Market, working her way up to regional manager, covering Central and North Florida. And a few years before she left Boston Market, she took over a company that cut collard greens, growing the business from selling just at the store to more than 20 locations.
In 2010, Sweet decided to leave her six-figure salary and move to Texas.
“So I turned in my resignation letter saying I was going to live my purpose and passion in life,” she says. “I had no clue what I was saying and what I was getting myself into.”
She had a short run as a contestant on season 2 of Master Chef, only making it through a few episodes. In Dallas, with no job and living with friends, Sweet began volunteering every day. Part of her service work was cooking dinner for residents of a CitySquare housing development.
Eventually, she established a catering company called Sweet Moses Brands, which she still owns. Missional Wisdom was one of her clients, and that’s how she got an offer to build and run the commercial kitchen.
It started with just a handful of members, and now there are 20.
Sourdough waffles, cinnamon crisp coffee cake and zucchini bread with walnuts from Hippos & Hashbrowns. Photography by Jehadu Abshiro.
Sandra Daniels was among the first to rent space at the Mix, having outgrown her home kitchen.
“Everybody that’s there is trying to support everybody else,” says Daniels, who owns Hippos & Hashbrowns. “We’re all trying to just make it.”
At first, Daniels baked at the Mix three days a week. But as her sourdough waffles, crisps and homemade biscuits surged in popularity, she needed help and more kitchen time.
Daniels knew the holiday season of 2021 would be the last time she could stay at the Mix. To keep up with the demand for Hippos & Hashbrowns products, sold at Whole Foods and Good Local Markets, Daniels needed more space.
“We had taken up this room and that room,” Daniels says. “And any place that we could sneak something in, we were doing it.”
That’s when she started looking for a place of her own. But the process took longer than she thought it would, and Hippos & Hashbrowns continued operating out of the Mix throughout 2022. They got lucky because another baker who used the Mix daily got married and moved to South Texas, creating some room.
In March, Daniels celebrated the grand opening of her first brick-and-mortar store at Casa View Shopping Center.
“We miss them when they go, but our goal is for you to outgrow us,” Sweet says.
In addition to offering commercial kitchen space, the Mix serves as a storage and prep facility for Sweet, who partners with Noble Life Outreach and Peer 2 Peer Whole Wellness to make hundreds of meals each week for food insecure North Texans.
The organizations provide food, and Sweet repurposes it. She takes the ingredients and comes up with recipes based on whatever she’s given, and if she needs something else to finish off the meal, her catering company provides it. When Noble Life donated 700 hot dogs, Sweet had to figure out how to incorporate them into meals, feeding people casseroles and other dishes for about two months.
Rescuing and repurposing food has only been going on for a few months at The Mix Feeding Kitchen, but Sweet has plans to grow the program. She set up an Amazon Wish List where people can purchase and donate supplies, and she hopes to partner with an organization that will provide trucks, so Sweet can take food to communities in need.
“I’m back where I started,” she says. “I’m back serving the streets of Dallas, just now through other ministries.”
