For Cookie Till it seems everything in her life has revolved around food, including her current mission of getting food – good food – to the people who need it the most.
Till is the famed restaurateur behind the iconic Steve & Cookie’s Restaurant in Margate. She also owns the coffee shop and bakery, Ventnor 7311, and the deli, Florida Cold Cuts, both in Ventnor.
“I love food and I love, with my restaurants, feeding people,” Till said. “But it just doesn’t sit right with me knowing we have the wherewithal to get food into the city. We have to develop a system for it, but everybody deserves that, not just people with means. Food should be a human right – good food.”
By “the city,” Till means getting that good food into cities in general to combat the problem of food deserts in urban areas across the nation. But specifically, she’s referring to Atlantic City, where she grew up, and where some of the most food-insecure neighborhoods in the state sit just five miles as the gull flies from her restaurants.
“Everybody deserves to have this great locally-grown, nutrient-dense food,” she said. “Atlantic City is one place that definitely does not have that as of now, but we’re working on that.”
For the past five years, Till has been working to change that reality through a major project that’s been growing just inshore.
Connection to the Land
Till said she remembers going to Reed’s Farm in Egg Harbor Township as a kid growing up in the city and thinking that she couldn’t believe something so rural could exist that nearby.
“I always loved coming out here,” she said. “I just thought it was such a beautiful spot and it was just so close to the island.”
She said that when she first ran restaurants in Margate – first at The Crab Pot and later Steve & Cookie’s – they continued the relationship with the Reed family’s farm.
“We used to buy our corn and tomatoes from Reed’s, so I got to know them,” she said.
Later, she also started a farmer’s market from the restaurant’s parking lot, and said Janice Reed would come out from the farm and sell their produce directly to the public.
Till said that after Janice’s husband Bob and his brother Billy died within a few years of each other, the farm ended up going up for sale.
She said she was afraid the farm would be lost to housing developments, and she had a better idea.
“It was a farm for three generations, but their kids didn’t want it,” she said. “I was like, ‘don’t sell it! Let me try and figure this out.’”
She quickly put a plan in motion and knew what she needed to do to carry out her vision for the property.
“I kind of knew it had to be a non-profit,” she said. “I had a small non-profit in Atlantic City helping to develop school gardens and community gardens. So I thought this would be a natural extension.”
In 2020, A Meaningful Purpose at Reed’s Farm was born.
Beginning to Grow
Their mission was to convert the property using regenerative, sustainable farming practices, and begin growing food to sell to the public .
This past year, according to the farm’s website, they grew 27,000 pounds of organic produce, representing 115 different varieties of fruits, vegetables and herbs.
But fairly quickly the scope of the mission on the farm evolved and expanded beyond just the growing of food.
“One of the other things that was near and dear to my heart was the Atlantic County Special Services, their K-12 school,” Till said.
She was on the board at the school, which serves students with special needs, and said she heard a common concern from parents worried about what their kids would do once they were out of school.
Till said she saw it as an opportunity to provide job and life training through positions at the farm and in 2024 they saw their reach grow, with 168 individuals coming through their programs.
Soon farm animals were added into the mix, with horses, alpacas, chickens, pigs and more finding a home at Reed’s and helping to improve the soil on the farm.
Then, of course, Cookie had to find a way to get back in the kitchen and do it right there on the farm.
“Having a culinary background, I was like, ‘well we can’t just have a farm. We need to have a market and a kitchen and cook all this stuff,’” she said.
And soon there was a market, where the public can buy produce directly from the farm, along with baked goods, prepared foods and more.
“Every year it just gets better and better as more people step in to help,” Till said of the farm’s overall operations. “We’re getting more food into people’s hands.
“I can envision this area – Atlantic County, Atlantic City – where we reach with the farm, connecting other farms and connecting a food system that really is equitable and affordable and enriching.”
Many Roads to One Goal
With all this to juggle, Till said she feels the mission is too important to consider slowing down.
“People will say, ‘oh you have all these projects,’” Till said. “But really to me it starts with – we’re stewards of this land and bringing this land back to life, and bringing people to this land, and producing healthy food.
“Where we are in the world, and what’s going on, I can’t imagine anything else that I would rather be doing.”
Though her plans may come in many forms, Till said it’s all really part of the same goal – creating a local economy around local food and people making things with their hands.
Sense of Place
“I feel like this area is really special and there are a lot of people doing cool things,” she said. “It’s like, how do we connect it and become known as this ‘place?’
“With the echo of being the Garden State, and the echo of being so close to the ocean, so when you go into restaurants or you go into shops, it feels of place.”
And again,creating that sense of “place,” Till said, often comes back to food – the food consumers choose to buy and the choices offered by businesses.
“Any restaurant you go into, in the summer, if they have a tomato, it better be Jersey,” Till said. “It’s supporting that local economy.”
She said she believes the desire to embrace the local-first mentality is growing, but that it’s necessary to work to make those benefits affordable and available to everyone.
“I think people are starting to realize we do have this special place and are starting to value it,” she said. “But I do think it’s accessibility – access, education – it’s so important.”
Till is for sure doing her part towards that end, and then some, and she’s hopeful others will join her in that journey.
“Something has to change,” she said. “You can’t change everything, but if you can you make some change where you live, and have people start to see it, and value it, and want to be part of it, then it’s a win.”
For more information about A Meaningful Purpose at Reed’s Farm, visit them online at www.reedsorganicfarm.org or follow them on Facebook and Instagram.