Featured Idea: Convert School Kitchens into Meal Distribution Hubs

by Kelly Ward

Published December 17, 2008 @ 08:37AM PT

When you first hear about DC Central Kitchen, you might be tempted to think of them as a traditional soup kitchen that feeds homeless men and women.  Let me tell you that they are so much more.  DC Central Kitchen is a proven model for addressing the interrelated problems of poverty, hunger, and homelessness.  Through seven different programs, they address the many problems that cause hunger, not just hunger itself.

One of my favorite initiatives is their Culinary Training Program.  Over the course of twelve weeks, unemployed, underemployed, homeless adults, and people who were previously incarcerated are trained for careers in the foodservice industry.  They go through cooking technique courses with local chef volunteers while at the same time learning lessons in professional development and life skills.

To date 650 men and women have graduated from the program, and the program has a 95 percent job placement rate.  Last year, 85 percent of graduates had retained their job after six months of employment with an average starting salary of $10 per hour.  Students who complete the program have gone on to work at places like Centerplate at Washington Convention Center, The Smithsonian Institution, the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, and Fresh Start Catering.

DC Central Kitchen has taken this culinary training program model to a national level through their Campus Kitchens Project.  Working from the assumption that every college campus has unserved food in its dining halls and brilliant students in its classrooms, the program enables thousands of students to recycle food from their cafeterias into nourishing meals for those who need them most. These university kitchens are also used to teach culinary skills to unemployed men and women, who, according to DC Central Kitchen, “teach the college students a thing or two about poverty, stereotypes, and what it takes to make it these days.”

The Campus Kitchens Project is at 12 campuses across the country, but DC Central Kitchen believes the model has potential to scale.

This type of successful model—and potential growth—is exactly the type of innovation the White House Office of Social Innovation could support.

Vote here to support DC Central Kitchen’s idea to make all school kitchens into social enterprise classrooms and meal distribution hubs.

Kelly Ward is the Director of America Forward, a coalition of social entrepreneurs building momentum around big ideas for changing government and changing the world. She will be guest blogging about America Forward member organizations throughout the Ideas for Change in America competition.