After 35 years as a food industry professional, it seems fitting that Selena Darrow would launch an organization to ensure other people eat well.
“I spent my entire adult career and essentially my childhood obsessed with food,” says Darrow, who was recently named CEO of the nonprofit organization she founded, Rooted In. “It’s always been my passion.”
As a single mom for 20 years, Darrow understands the difficulty of stretching dollars and navigating systems that don’t make it easy to get help. And now, getting nutritious food into the hands of those who need it is becoming more urgent.
Working with the Brown County Hunger Coalition for the past two years, Darrow says she has seen the need grow exponentially over the last 12 months. Some pantries are reporting 30% increases in need year-over-year, coupled with a decline of 6% in SNAP participation.
“Those folks that were being supported through the federal nutrition program … are still hungry. And so they’re turning to the charitable system,” she says, adding that the need is expected to grow in October when further federal eligibility restrictions are added.
Darrow launched Rooted In in June 2023 without a crystal-clear mission. The first couple of months were about learning more about the food system and building relationships, she says.
One of those relationships is with the community gardens program in Brown County.
“Someone who has a long history with that program said, ‘Well, you know, Selena, there’s a lot of produce that’s left over in the garden that ends up going to waste,” Darrow says. “And I said, ‘well, not this year.’”
Darrow recovered the leftover food from the garden twice — about 300 pounds each time — and took it to the Salvation Army. But during the second delivery, the organization declined, saying most of the previous load went to waste. Darrow learned that “just because something is familiar to me as a vegetable or fruit doesn’t mean it’s culturally relative to other folks in our community,” or that people had time to make something with it.
So Darrow decided to put her skills to work. In February 2024, Darrow launched Rooted In’s Cooking for the Community project.
Using surplus food, Rooted In produces individually packaged nutritious meals with a team of volunteers. The meals are distributed through food pantries and service organizations, only using nutrient-dense ingredients, supplemented with locally grown produce. The nonprofit received a $60,000 DATCP-supported grant through the Hunger Task Force to be able to buy food directly from local farmers this summer.
From June 2025 to June 2026, Rooted In made and distributed 6,472 meals. Rooted In also offers cooking classes and nutrition education and will be offering a food recovery app called Knead, allowing the organization to build routes and volunteer opportunities for food pickup and distribution.
Rooted In creates meals like spaghetti with meatballs and roasted broccoli. It makes from-scratch soups and taco bowls, both vegetarian and meatless. The organization’s largest food recovery partner is Delaware North, the hospitality provider at Lambeau Field, and it works with other partners like Healthy Way grocery store in Green Bay. It also accepts donations from individual gardens.
Rooted In continues to grow. It recently hired a director of programs, Alex Galt, and opened a new commercial kitchen on Curry Lane in Green Bay. The move will allow the organization to expand its reach in the community, with the ability to produce at least 2,000 meals per month out of the new kitchen.
“It’s just truly a privilege to be able to use my skills to be a change-maker in this community,” says Darrow, whose dream is to build a community culinary health center. “My hope for everyone is that they find something that they’re just passionate about and just do something about it, like one hour of your time a week — imagine the change.”
