DCCK Mission & Programs Overview >>

DC Central Kitchen, Inc. is a non-profit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) corporation that began its first phase of operations on January 20, 1989, redistributing the excess food from the Presidential inauguration. The Kitchen is founded on the premise that when fighting poverty, one must fight to win by using every resource available. Be it food, money, or people, we hate to see wasted potential. Since its inception, DC Central Kitchen has used the kitchen as a central location to recover unused food, prepare and deliver meals to partner social service agencies, train and employ homeless men and women for the food service industry, and intellectually engage volunteers.

DC Central Kitchen is not a ‘soup kitchen’. Our cohesive approach to solving the interconnected problems of poverty, hunger, and homelessness has led us to become a recognized national leader in our field. As a community kitchen, we recycle over one ton of surplus food each day that would otherwise go to waste and turn it into 4,500 daily, nutritious meals for the greater Washington, DC region. Among the people preparing these meals are the students of our Culinary Job Training program; once homeless and hungry individuals themselves, these aspiring men and women are equipped with professional and life skills. DC Central Kitchen uses the existing ingredients of our society to strengthen bodies, empower minds, and build communities.

Mission
The mission of DC Central Kitchen is to use food as a tool to:

• Strengthen Bodies, by safely recovering unserved food from local foodservice businesses to feed children and adults at partner agencies throughout the greater Washington area
• Empower Minds, by providing culinary job training for unemployed men and women and community service opportunities for youth and adults
• Build Communities, by providing working examples, innovative solutions, and shared technology to a cooperative and effective national network of programs that use food to make change in their communities.

Programs Overview
DC Central Kitchen focuses its efforts into the following program areas:

• Through First Helping, the Kitchen provides citywide, street-level meal services, referrals, and counseling to people who are homeless. We have also initiated a low-cost Community Voice Mail program to help homeless individuals maintain contact with family members, employers, and service agencies.
• As part of our Food Recycling program, the Kitchen collects and re-prepares more than one ton of surplus food every day from area food service businesses.
• Our Meal Distribution program provides meals to community non-profit programs throughout the DC metropolitan area, saving them money and allowing them to focus on their own unique and worthy missions.
• The Kitchen offers a nationally recognized 12-week Culinary Job Training program for unemployed adults who are either homeless or receiving public assistance. It is a cohesive effort to teach culinary, professional, and life skills to individuals seeking self-sufficiency and financial stability.
• Our Healthy Returns initiative offers healthy meals, quality snacks, and nutrition education to disadvantaged youth through partnerships with DC area social service agencies.
• The Kitchen operates a full-service catering company and employment development project, Fresh Start Catering , that not only provides outstanding catering and contract foods service to clients, but excellent employment opportunities for graduates of the Culinary Job Training Program.
• DC Central Kitchen puts its model to work on university campuses through The Campus Kitchens Project (SM), providing a unique service leadership opportunity for young scholars. Since opening the pilot Campus Kitchen at Saint Louis University in October 2001, eleven more locations are thriving on campuses across the country. Once idle kitchens are now turning up the heat on hunger.

DC Central Kitchen’s multi-faceted programming uses food as nutritional sustenance, as fuel for minds, and as a training tool for the unemployed. Together, these three uses of food present a powerful front against the dangerous cycles of poverty, and against the stereotypes surrounding hunger in America.