The Community Kitchen: How Participatory Budgeting Flips the Power Script

A word about Participatory Budgeting…

It’s not soley about budgets. It’s about who gets to decide what goes on the menu for our communities.

So let’s get into it.

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a democratic process where community members, folk who live and breath in their area(not just elected official) directly decide how to spend part of a public budget.

Think of it as the difference between having a meal cooked for you versus being handed the ingredients and recipe book.

In traditional budgeting, elected officials and bureaucrats decide your fiscal menu.

With PB, communities collaborate to determine what gets funded, how resources get distributed, and what priorities matter most to the people actually living there. It’s collective descision making about public money.

PB chefs up a massive community meal, a poppin’ potluck if you will…

Everyone contributes an ingredient—some bring fresh ideas, others bring experience, and some bring just a hunger for change.

But instead of one chef deciding the menu, the whole community decides what to cook together.

For generations, only a few hands have held the pantry key, deciding what gets served and who gets a plate. The same folks controlling the kitchen, controlling who eats, controlling who goes hungry.

That’s not coincidence—that’s by design.

But PB shifts that power—it unlocks the kitchen, redistributes the ingredients, and lets everyone take part in designing the meal.

The result? A recipe that actually reflects the people eating it, nourishing the whole community instead of just those who’ve always had a seat at the table.

Participatory Budgeting Power

When communities control their own resources, they don’t just fund different projects—they rewrite the entire relationship between government and people.

That check that used to flow one way? Now it’s a conversation.

That decision that used to happen behind closed doors? Now it’s happening at community centers, churches, schools, and block parties.

Because let’s be real:

• When Black and Brown communities get control of budgets, they invest in education, healthcare access, and environmental justice.
• When young people get a voice, they demand climate action, mental health services, and tech equity.
• When formerly incarcerated individuals get to participate, they bring expertise and lived experience and perspective about what actually restorative practices and community building.

The establishment didn’t give up the kitchen keys because they suddenly got generous.

Communities had to organize, demand access, and sometimes straight-up pick the lock. And now that we’re in, we’re cooking different meals entirely.

From Consumers to Creators: The PB Revolution

Traditional budgeting treats communities like restaurant patrons who can only order from a pre-fixed menu: “Would you like your tax dollars spent on more policing or more prisons? More highways or more parking lots?”

Participatory budgeting hands over the spatula and says, “What are we actually hungry for?”

The results speak for themselves:

• In Chicago’s 49th Ward, residents allocated funds to community gardens in food deserts
• District 8 in New York, shows a new solar powered community garden for folks to increase jobs, education and nutrition opportunities
• In Boston, young people directed resources to mental health services when officials were focused elsewhere

And the beautiful part? These aren’t just “nice ideas” – they’ll be more effective.

When communities cook their own meals, they waste less, nourish more people, and create recipes that last.

All because they were involved in the process.

The Recipe for Financial Justice

PB isn’t just about food—it’s about financial justice, collective care, and rewriting who gets to decide how resources are shared. The more people join the kitchen, the better we eat.

But this isn’t just about adding more cooks—it’s about changing who gets to write the recipe book in the first place. Because participatory budgeting doesn’t just redistribute money; it redistributes power.

Traditional budgeting might ask: “How do we divide up what we have?” PB asks: “Why do we accept these limitations in the first place?”

And that’s the revolutionary ingredient most people miss:

Participatory budgeting doesn’t just change what we fund today; it transforms what we believe is possible tomorrow.

Next time somebody tells you communities “don’t know enough” to make budget decisions, remind them: Nobody knows better what needs to be on the plate than the people who’ve been missing meals.

The expertise has always been there, it’s just that nobody was passing the microphone to hear it.

Because at the end of the day, budgets aren’t just numbers on spreadsheets, they’re moral documents that tell us who and what we value. And when we let communities write those documents together, we don’t just get better budgets, we get better, stronger, and healthier communities.

That’s not just participatory democracy. That’s justice being served. Family-style.