DCCK Mission & Programs Overview >>

DC Central Kitchen turns leftover food into millions of meals for thousands of at-risk individuals while offering nationally recognized culinary job training to once homeless and hungry adults.

Our mission is to use food as a tool to strengthen bodies, empower minds, and build communities. 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.

Programs Overview
The Kitchen’s continuum of care includes seven interconnected programs:

1. First Helping, our city-wide street-level outreach program, uses warm breakfasts to start conversations and build relationships with homeless individuals. These initial connections are used to identify client needs, provide critical counseling, and refer them to appropriate social service agencies.
2. Food Recycling puts waste to work, collecting 3,000 pounds of surplus food every day from area food service businesses and converting them into 4,500 meals.
3. Meal Distribution loads these breakfasts, lunches, and dinners onto a fleet of twenty trucks and vans, delivering them to more than 100 area shelters, rehabilitation clinics, and other nonprofit agencies. We save these many partners millions of dollars on food each year, allowing them to focus their time and resources on their own unique missions.
4. Culinary Job Training enrolls unemployed adults overcoming homelessness, addiction, and incarceration in a twelve week professional education program, preparing them for success in the kitchen and in life.
5. Fresh Start Catering offers full service catering as DCCK’s flagship revenue-generating social enterprise. Fresh Start also provides transitional employment opportunities for CJT program graduates.
6. Healthy Returns offers balanced meals, quality snacks, and nutritional education to low-income youth and adults through partnerships with DC-area social service agencies.
7. The Campus Kitchens Project replicates DCCK’s community kitchen model on college campuses, using student energy and recovered cafeteria food to serve 26 communities across America.