Madison Children's Museum

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1. The MCM Lunchbox: Flourishing Two Years into a Grand Experiment 

   July 1, 2024 10:03 pm Comments Off on The MCM Lunchbox: Flourishing Two Years into a Grand Experiment 

   

   This July marks the two-year anniversary of the Lunchbox, our pay-what-you-can cafe. The pay-what-you-can model—the only such restaurant inside a US museum—ensures that no one has to play on an empty stomach. That said, the cafe is for EVERYBODY. Eating together is a powerful shared experience. This innovative community cafe was featured during the Association of Children’s Museums Interactivity conference held in Madison in May, spotlighting the cafe for children’s museums internationally. We are proud to share our knowledge with everyone interested—and many are! We’ve received calls from other museums looking to replicate our model in their home communities.  

   Lunchbox facts

   • Since opening, 77% of food costs have been covered by payments in the cafe. (We’ve received additional cafe funding from individuals, businesses, and grants)  
   • That percentage has been rising, reaching 90% of food costs covered by in-cafe payments in June 2024 
   • Over 1,200 Watermelon slices have been eaten since May  
   • While composting & recycling are available in the cafe, an internally conducted waste audit showed not many visitors sort and separate their food waste into the correct containers, revealing an area we can make the cafe more sustainable in future 

   Madison Children’s Museum owns and operates the Lunchbox, a licensed retail food & beverage establishment. We purchase food and make it available to visitors. There are no posted prices; diners choose what they’ll pay for their food. It’s ok to pay a little, a lot, or nothing at all. Use of the cafe isn’t restricted to those with museum tickets; everyone is welcome. They can eat at our cafe tables or take the food to go.  

   The Lunchbox offers quick snacks—like fruit or granola bars—and freshly prepared meals. We are proud that the prepared foods you will find in the cafe are produced by local partners Willy Street Co-op & Ugly Apple Cafe. Both share our values and priorities: providing access to healthy food, addressing food insecurity, and operating sustainably. The museum purchases food from these partners at preferred pricing; they are invested in the success of the cafe. 

   “I often get asked if the cafe breaks even. The quick answer is: no, not yet. But breaking even isn’t the primary goal. The Lunchbox serves our mission, supporting children and their families, making sure that healthy food at the museum is accessible to everyone. That said, it’s great to see the payments in the cafe continuing to approach food costs.”
   — Lily Hoyer-Winfield, MCM director of visitor services

   Willy Street Co-op  

   The Willy Street Co-op has been a Madison institution since 1974—just like MCM! The Lunchbox cafe was a proud recipient of a grant from the Willy Street Co-op’s Community Reinvestment Fund in 2023. Given our shared history and values, we were delighted when this May, the Willy Street Co-op kitchen became our newest food partner and started weekly deliveries of fresh food to the Lunchbox. Their deli foods provide a variety of coop-favorite fresh salads and dishes, with a range of new flavors, textures, and sizes for our visitors to enjoy. In the Lunchbox cooler you’ll find “sharables,” “just for me,” and “try me” sizes of deli salads—perfect for families to try and share new food together. 

   

   Partnering with MCM has been great; this relationship speaks to many of us on so many levels. The intersection of sustainability and community means ‘local’ to me—building relationships within our community to help sustain our community. Dollars spent here get recirculated within our community and continue to help boost our local economy. This is what Willy Street is all about.” 
   — Nicholas Oconnor, prepared foods & cheese category manager of the Willy Street Co-op

   Ugly Apple Cafe

   Ugly Apple Cafe has been a partner with the Lunchbox since the fall of 2023. Every week, Ugly Apple provides fresh baked scones and muffins for Friday visitors. Ugly Apple Cafe is housed in the County Courthouse building, only a few blocks from the museum. On Friday mornings a staff person from the museum walks over and picks up delicious bakery goods—you don’t get much more “fresh and local” than that! These muffins and scones are seasonal, delicious, and baked in kid-friendly sizes.  

   

   Ugly Apple also caters many special events at MCM, including coffee and donuts for Member Mornings (a members-only hour on the first Saturday of the month) and food for member parties. They also often host a pop-up shop at MCM serving at events like Live from the Wonderground. Ugly Apple Cafe seeks to use produce and food products that may otherwise be thrown out for their appearance or for other reasons that don’t compromise the taste or nutritional value of the food.  

   “As a parent, we are at the museum playing a lot and it’s been really interesting to see how my children’s tastes compare with the items that are popular with the museum community.”
   —Ugly Apple Cafe owner Laurel Burleson. 

   The relationship between Madison Children’s Museum and these two valued organizations will continue to grow in 2024 and beyond, with all of us looking forward to breaking bread with our partners, visitors to Madison Children’s Museum, and the broader community. 
    
   The Lunchbox cafe opened in July of 2022 as a partnership between Madison Children’s Museum and Little John’s Kitchens. We thank Chef Dave for his vision and passion in helping to create the cafe.  

   Major support is provided by Jane Villa in honor of Deb Gilpin, with additional support provided by The Tamara D. Grigsby Office for Equity and Inclusion. 

   2022 pilot funders include the Ecumenical Fund for Nutrition at Madison Community Foundation, Jane & David Villa, Endres Manufacturing Company Foundation, Virent, Inc., Willy Street Co-op, Dane County Department of Waste & Renewables, and J.H. Findorff & Son Inc.  

   Access for Everyone support is provided by Nimick Forbesway Foundation, Exact Sciences, and JPMorgan Chase. Over 200 households and organizations made individual gifts of less than $2,500.  

2. Deb Gilpin, President & CEO of Madison Children’s Museum, Announces Retirement

   January 22, 2024 2:01 pm Leave a Comment

   Board begins national search for new leader

   

   January 22, 2024

   After 11 years at the helm of Madison Children’s Museum, and 36 years total in children’s and science museums, Deb Gilpin, MCM’s President and CEO, will retire this summer. The museum’s board of directors has begun a national search for her replacement.

   “Deb leaves the museum in great shape, giving plenty of notice for the daunting task of replacing her,” says Matt Premo, president of the MCM board. “We’re in the admirable position of looking for a leader who can continue to make great things happen.” 

   Like so many of the museum’s best features, Gilpin is locally grown, born and raised in the Madison area. She began her museum career in 1987, when she helped open the Discovery Museum, a new hands-on museum in Acton, Mass. After serving as CEO for ten years, she moved to the Arizona Science Center, and then opened another museum—the Children’s Museum of Phoenix, growing it for nine years from infancy to one of the top children’s museums in the country. 

   Deb brought her talent, experience, and passion for the field to MCM. Under her oversight, MCM continued to flourish as an industry leader, setting the standard for other museums in sustainability and breaking down barriers to access. 

   Gilpin took the job in 2013, three years after MCM moved from State Street to its larger current home on Capitol Square. Under her leadership the museum grew and thrived, building several new exhibits; improving its financial position through donations, grants, and earned revenue; increasing employee pay and retention; growing community partnerships; and continuing the museum’s history of innovation and leadership in the children’s museum field.  

   She led the museum through 15 months of pandemic-forced closure and the long, slow process of reopening and recovery. Like many leaders of businesses and nonprofits, she made hard decisions about layoffs, terminations, and cutting positions. Within months of reopening the museum, the Wonderground opened—a 10,000-square-foot, sustainably built playground for active, imaginative play, constructed on the museum’s former parking lot. In place of an unusable, structurally compromised eyesore, the community now had a safe place for healthy outdoor play just as families were cautiously venturing back out. By that time, many staff forced to leave in the crisis had been rehired. 

   Since reopening, the museum is stronger and more successful by all significant measures. 

   During her time, Gilpin oversaw the launch of several innovative programs. In response to the first Race to Equity report in 2014, the Teen Workforce program was launched to improve the job opportunity gap between teens of color and their peers. That program continues with new teens joining the staff team each summer, while many graduates of the program have been promoted into other positions at the museum.  

   In 2017, the museum launched the First-Time Parent Membership, giving a free membership to every family with a new child, until the child turns 18 months old—2,000 families signed up before the end of the first year. That program is also still running, and at least a half dozen other children’s museums have consulted with MCM staff and launched their own similar programs. 

   In 2022 MCM opened the first pay-what-you-can restaurant in a museum, Little John’s Lunchbox. The cafe served nearly 16,000 meals last year, many to food insecure families. The Lunchbox was recently listed by the American Association of Museums as one of twelve noteworthy innovations in 2023. 

   The Access for Everyone program, reducing barriers to museum admission, was in place when Gilpin arrived. Under her leadership, usage increased from 17 to 30%, a healthy indication that MCM is serving families who might not otherwise be able to afford to visit. In 2018, MCM further reduced barriers by removing documentation requirements from Access for Everyone membership and admission programs. This simple change has likely contributed to the increased usage—and decreased stigma. 

   Gilpin has timed her departure to go out on a high note: Early this summer, MCM will open a major new exhibit, The Nice Age Trail. That exhibit grows from the Caretakers of Wonder initiative, funded through a national leadership grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. MCM is leading a cohort of eight children’s museums and science centers on a two-year project supporting young children and their families in the face of climate change. Here in the Madison area, the exhibit will be the most visible product of Caretakers of Wonder. But later in the summer of 2024, the influence of Caretakers of Wonder will grow well beyond Madison—and the other eight partner sites—as the project shares learning and resources with the national museum field and other organizations that serve young children and families. 

   Gilpin has made her mark here and in the national museum field, leaving programs, exhibits, and ideas that will benefit children for many years to come. She plans to take three months off after her retirement to rest, recharge, and travel. Then she expects to find new ways to serve. 

   “I see every child who comes through the front door like a glowing ball of potential. I’ve always been curious about drawing out those gifts—for their own good as well as for the benefit of others with whom they will interact,” says Gilpin. “I think it’s those kids with their nearly limitless potential who I’ll miss most.” 

   The board has retained the services of the Arts Consulting Group, a national full-service consulting firm specializing in executive search for arts and culture organizations.  

   

   

   

   

   

   Highlights from Deb Gilpin’s time at MCM

   • 2013, Deb joins Madison Children’s Museum as president & CEO 
   • 2014, In response to the Madison Race to Equity report, the museum launches the Teen Workforce program 
   • 2017, New exhibit From Coops to Cathedrals: Nature, Childhood, and the Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright opens 
   • 2017, MCM launches the First-Time Parent Membership program bringing thousands of babies and new families to MCM 
   • 2018, MCM dismantles barriers by removing documentation requirements from Access for Everyone membership and admission programs 
   • 2018, Received Women of Industry Award from InBusiness Magazine 
   • 2019, Planning and fundraising begin for a major expansion of the museum’s outdoor spaces 
   • 2020, The pandemic hits; MCM closes its doors, future uncertain. Gilpin works to secure funding, keeps MCM operating with limited staffing, and continues progress on a modified expansion 
   • 2021, The museum reopens; the Wonderground opens, adding 10,000 square feet of open-air play space 
   • 2022, MCM opens the first pay-what-you-can restaurant in a museum, Little John’s Lunchbox 
   • 2023, MCM leads the national Caretakers of Wonder initiative funded through a national leadership grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services  
   • 2024, Construction begins on The Nice Age Trail, a new exhibit informed by the work of Caretakers of Wonder, set to open in June 2024