Little Caesars’ Love Kitchen Brings Joy and Resources to The Beehive

By Jared Campbell, Resident Engagement Project Manager at Downtown Council of Kansas City

On a picture-perfect day last month as Kansas City was getting ready to cheer on the Chiefs at their home opener, another celebration was happening at 8th and Paseo. For the second year in a row, the NFL and the Kansas City Chiefs, in partnership with Little Caesars, brought the Love Kitchen to the Beehive to deliver a hot meal to those in need.

This is the third year that Little Caesars has been the official pizza sponsor of the NFL. In conjunction with that partnership, they have been traveling across the country with their Love Kitchen, a mobile restaurant on wheels, stopping in key NFL cities to provide pizza to communities in need.

The success of working with The Beehive and its partner organizations, Nourish KC, Care Beyond the Boulevard, and the GKC Coalition to End Homelessness, in 2023 brought them back this year for an even bigger celebration. In addition to engaging with the community through food, the NFL and Little Caesar’s presented a check for $50,000 to The Beehive to help continue the great work taking place at that center.

For many years, The Beehive was known as the Downtown Community Services Center.

It was rebranded as The Beehive, a Health and Housing Collaborative, in 2023 to reflect the new partnership between the organizations housed at the center. This approach provides nutritious meals, housing referrals, advocacy, counseling services, document services along with health, dental and psychiatric clinics. The focus of The Beehive and its organizations is to concentrate on the gap in the continuum of care and partner with surrounding overnight providers so that every need is met.

To learn more about The Beehive, take a tour, or just learn more about the homeless outreach efforts of the Community Improvement Districts, please contact Sean O’Byrne at sean@downtownkc.org.