Off-Site Food Preparation

You can help DC Central Kitchen “combat hunger and create opportunity” by preparing food for us off-site. Volunteer groups have made sack lunches, healthy snack bags, casseroles and toiletry kits, and they have organized food drives.

DCCK drivers are available during mornings and afternoons, seven days a week, to pick up donated food in the DC area. If you have questions about off-site opportunities or if you want to schedule a pickup, please contact Jamie Schuman (jschuman@dccentralkitchen.org or 202-234-0707, Ext. 145) at least three business days in advance of your event.

Sack lunch guidelines

• Lunch bags normally include one sandwich, a fruit, another healthy snack and a 100 percent juice box. Volunteers are also welcome to just make sandwiches.
• Please make sure sandwiches are individually wrapped.
• Please avoid tuna salad, egg salad, and other mayonnaise-based sandwiches.
• If making meat and cheese sandwiches, don’t use condiments.
• All volunteers handling food should wash their hands and wear disposable gloves. They also should tie their hair back and wear a head covering, such as a hairnet or a baseball cap.

Healthy snack bags guidelines

• Snack bags will benefit Healthy Returns, DCCK’s children’s nutrition program.
• Bags normally include a piece of fruit/fruit cup, and a healthy carbohydrate snack.
• Examples of carbohydrate snacks include: individual bags of pretzels, crackers, or homemade trail mix; granola bars; Nutri-Grain bars.
• Please avoid snacks that require refrigeration (e.g. yogurt, string cheese).
• Please avoid cookies, candy and other sweets.

Casserole drive guidelines

• Volunteers can cook pasta and meat dishes or casseroles for us to distribute to our clients. Through one school’s recent service project, more than 70 families made home-made dishes for us!
• Please avoid dishes that contain fish or pork.
• DCCK can provide pans, or you can use your own lasagna-sized pans.
• Please label all meals.
• All meals must be properly stored and refrigerated. Contact Jamie Schuman (jschuman@dccentralkitchen.org) for details.
• All volunteers handling food should wash their hands and wear disposable gloves. They also should tie their hair back and wear a head covering, such as a hairnet or a baseball cap.

Toiletry kit guidelines

• Kits benefit our street-outreach team, First Helping.
• Kits consist of travel-sized hygiene items put into a small Ziploc bag.
• Contents can include: shampoo/conditioner; soap; deodorant; toothbrush; toothpaste; lotion; sun block; brush/comb.
• Please avoid razors and medicine.

Canned-food drive guidelines

• As we cook and distribute meals in bulk, we prefer to get large quantities of a small number of items instead of a great variety of items (though we’re happy to take whatever non-perishable foods you give us).
• We encourage groups to target their drives to specific items. Successful drives in the past have included: muffin mix; tomato products (sauce, paste, canned tomatoes, etc.); beans; canned corn or another vegetable.
• Healthy snack drives, which benefit our Healthy Returns nutrition program, also have been successful. Please ask participants for individual-sized packs of healthy snacks, such as granola bars, pretzels, crackers, raisins and fruit cups.