The founder of a Richmond secret supper club now feeds thousands of locals in need

When the pandemic hit, Richmonder Micheal Sparks was in the business of traveling across the country, throwing fabulous, $200-a-head dinner parties; today he sticks closer to home, running a nonprofit focused on feeding food insecure locals.

Why it matters: In the last four years, Sparks' pandemic pivot — The Underground Kitchen Community First — has served more than 700,000 meals to Richmonders in need.

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• And next week they'll launch a new chapter of the nonprofit: delivering 9,000 meals a month to Central Virginians with disabilities as part of Richmond-based Soar365's summer camp program.

The big picture: Sparks, a former fashion designer who worked with brands like Louis Vuitton, launched his pop-up supper club, The Underground Kitchen , in Richmond in 2013.

• The idea was born out of dinner parties he and his life partner, Dr. Richard Brown, hosted at their home as a way to meet people when the couple moved here from NYC for Brown's work four years earlier.
• With UGK, Sparks created themed, ticketed dinner parties held in secret, unexpected locations around Richmond, each one featuring an up-and-coming chef — usually one of color, LGBTQ+ or other often under-promoted talent.
• The dinners were a hit, and by 2019, UGK was hosting dinners around the county — including one that summer at the James Beard Foundation's Beard House — and in expansion mode. International pop-ups and a TV deal were in the works when COVID arrived.

The kind of meals UGK served regularly pre-pandemic. Image: Courtesy of UGK Community First

Zoom in: Sparks wallowed for a few weeks in the spring of 2020, thinking about the fridge full of food he had going to waste. Then he and the UGK team got to work after a push from his mom reminded him there were plenty of folks who likely needed help.

• The first week, the UGK team served around 175 meals to local frontline health workers. That was March 2020.
• By mid-May, UGK had officially launched the nonprofit arm, partnered with the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia and was serving 2,000 meals to Richmonders every week, WTVR reported .
• The mission refined in the nonprofit's first months, but from the beginning Sparks wanted to ensure the meals the nonprofit created were just as fresh, tasty and fabulous as anything the supper club would serve.

UGK Community First's garden is behind the Richmond jail. Image: Courtesy of UGK Community First

The intrigue: " Food with dignity," is the mission behind all of it, Sparks tells Axios. Every meal served uses fresh, quality ingredients — most of it grown locally, either in the UGK garden in the East End, or donated through relationships with local farms, like Shalom Farms.

• In 2022, UGK brought on executive chef Steve Glenn, a former private chef and contestant on Gordon Ramsay's "Hell's Kitchen" to oversee all of the menus.
• That includes more than 40,000 meals a month to 20 local child care centers through UGK's The Future Foodies program.
• And 300,000 meals to date through its families and seniors program.

What's next: The nonprofit is hosting its biggest fundraiser ever next month, a Juneteenth Jubilee . But UGK never had a chance to open ticket sales — it sold out through word of mouth immediately.

• Its supper club is still going strong, though only these days the events are all hosted in Sparks' Manchester District studio space. But true to form, the latest one set for Friday night is sold out .