• by Ray Schultz , September 4, 2024

Civil Eats, a nonprofit site focused on the relationship between food and social and political issues, is removing its paywall — at least temporarily. 

The publication writes that “in honor of our 15th anniversary, two generous funders, the 11th Hour Project, a program of the Schmidt Family Foundation, and GRACE Communications Foundation, have provided us funding to help us remove our paywall for one year.”

But Civil Eats is launching a membership drive to keep the site free beyond the first year.

In 2015, like many independent nonprofit sites, Civil Eats put up a paywall. “Readers could access a small number of articles for free, and they could pay to become a Civil Eats member and get full access to our reporting,” it continues.

However, the site adds, “We’ve always wanted to remove our paywall in order to make our journalism free and accessible to everyone. And in our surveys, we heard that sentiment from members, too. Because the membership program provided a significant amount of our budget, removing the paywall has been a constant concern. Until now.”

Civil Eats raised $100,000 via Kickstarter in 2013.