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DC Central Kitchen, Inc. - charity reviews, charity ratings, best charities, best nonprofits, search nonprofits

Phone: 202-234-0707

425 Second St. Nw
Washington, DC 20001

www.dccentralkitc... Volunteer Donate

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Latest Review

Reviewed by: hannahb465

on 08/25/10:

Several friends and I (all high schoolers) wanted to give back to the community a little this summer by volunteering at DCCK. Our evening was well-organized, efficient, fun, and rewarding. While we chopped and peeled vegetables, it was wonderful to meet our truly fascinating fellow voluntee...   more

Mission

DC Central Kitchen turns leftover food into millions of meals for thousands of at-risk individuals while offering nationally recognized culinary job training to adults overcoming homelessness, addiction, and incarceration. We use food as a tool to strengthen bodies, empower minds, and build communities. 

Key Facts

Geographic areas served:

Washington, DC

Target demographics:

Our Meal Distribution program provides quality nutrition to 4,500 children, families, adults, and seniors each day. Recipients of our meals are clients of our 100 partner social service agencies, and thus represent a wide-cross section of our community, but all represent low-income and at-risk populations.

Our Culinary Job Training students are unemployed adults working to overcome histories of substance abuse, incarceration, and homelessness. Nearly all are DC residents and approximately 80% of each class identify themselves as African-American.

Our Healthy Returns program provides healthy meals and snacks, along with nutrition education, to low-income children in Washington, DC. Last year, 1,300 children benefited from Healthy Returns’ programming.

Our First Helping street-level outreach program serves chronically homeless men and women in DC—specifically in downtown’s Golden Triangle District and Wards 7 and 8 east of the Anacostia River. Notably, we are the only outreach service working east of the river.

Results to date:

Since opening our doors twenty-one years ago, we have:

• Served over 21 million meals—now in the amount of 4,500 each day—to our region’s hungry and homeless men, women, and children through our Food Recycling and Meal Distribution program.

• Graduated nearly 800 once-homeless and hungry men and women from our Culinary Job Training program. Since the economic crisis of 2008, our graduates have attained a 94% job placement rate and seen their starting average hourly salary increase over our earlier trainees.

• Engaged a daily average of 250 chronically homeless men and women through conversation and breakfast through our First Helping program, building relationships and connecting them with vital services.

• Recruited hundreds of thousands of volunteers for the fight against hunger. Last year, 14,000 individuals donated their time and talents to our organization.

• Replicated our model on the campuses of 26 colleges and high schools across America through our student-powered hunger relief program, The Campus Kitchens Project. Since 2001, CKP has recovered more than 1,000,000 pounds of food and served over 1,000,000 meals.

Direct beneficiaries per year: 10,000

With 3 hours a volunteer can:

DCCK volunteers have three meaningful ways to spend three hours. Most (some 10,000 people in 2009) join our morning meal production shift. Between 9 am and noon, these individuals will work alongside DCCK staff and culinary trainees to prepare 4,500 meals for hungry and at-risk members of the DC community.

But not everyone is a morning person. We also offer an evening shift from 5 to 8 pm when our volunteers slice and dice fresh local produce recovered from area farms. The finished products are bagged and sealed for use in future DCCK meal production.

Finally, volunteers can also join our First Helping street-level outreach team. Each morning, First Helping volunteers serve breakfast to chronically homeless individuals at 4 locations in DC, offering hot meals and warm conversation. Volunteers are supported by highly qualified outreach workers with extensive knowledge of the areas and individuals they serve. First Helping volunteers must be 18 or older.

To learn more, visit http://www.dccentralkitchen.org/volunteer. We would love to see you around the Kitchen.

Board Members and Affiliation:

Robert Egger, Founder and President

Marie Tibor, Chair, Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington

Jose Andres, Chair Emeritus, ThinkFoodGroup Inc

Lynne Breaux, Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington

Jim Burke, Sodexho USA

Josh Carin, Geppetto Catering

Gil Crawford, MicroVest Capital Management, LLC

Ken Crerar, The Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers

Xavier Deshayes, Executive Chef- Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center

Paul Fields, Restaurant Development Services

Michael Freedman, Geiman, Rosenberg & Freedman

Tiffany Godbout, Hotel Association of Washington DC

Ryland Johnson, Zola Restaurant

David Kassir, Georgetown Private Cliente

LaShon Kell, Bracewell & Giuliani LLP

Jodie L. Kelley, Fannie Mae

Rev. Ray Kemp, Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown University

Sam LeBlanc, Balancing Act

Ris Lacoste, Chef and Restaurateur

Chance Patterson, XM Satelitte Radio

Barton Seaver, Chef and Sustainability Consultant

Michael L. Stewart, DCCK CJT Program Graduate

Geoffrey Stricker, Clark Construction

Twanda Thomas, Martha’s Table, DCCK CJT Graduate

Rosetta Thurman, The Nonprofit Roundtable

Nancy Torray, Robert E. Torray and Anne P. Torray Family Foundation

Rob Wilder, Chair Emeritus, ThinkFoodGroup Inc.

Rhonda Willingham, MenzFit

Key Staff

Robert Egger, President and Founder

Michael Curtin, CEO

Rafael Chapman, Chief Financial Officer

Gregg Malsbary, Director of Programs and Revenue Generating

Brian MacNair, Chief Development Officer

Jerald Thomas, Director of Kitchen Operations

Marianne Ali, Director of Culinary Job Training Program

Jamie Schuman, Partner Relations Manager

Allison Sosna, Executive Chef of Fresh Start Catering and Contract Foods

Steve Robinson, Transportation Manager

Description

DCCK is proud of its strong community partnerships with donors, volunteers, and other service organizations. Our efficient, effective programming ensures that those who contribute to our organization, be it with time, energy, or money, receive an unmatched social dividend. Every day, we put our core belief—that by working together, we can eradicate hunger and homelessness from our community—to the test on the front lines of social change.

Programs

Our programs provide a comprehensive continuum of care to the people we serve. First, we provide breakfast, outreach, and counseling services to chronically homeless people living on the streets. Next we recycle 3,000 pounds of food each day, converting it into 4,500 meals we distribute to 100 shelters, transitional homes, and rehabilitation clinics throughout the DC area. These partner agencies then refer clients to our Culinary Job Training program, where they receive the tools to start new careers. We complete the empowerment process by employing our graduates in our full-service catering company or by placing them in full-time jobs at restaurants and hotels throughout the region. Today, we are expanding our operations, partnering with local farmers to procure fresh produce and begin new revenue-generating social enterprises.