Wasting food is more than a shame. It’s a crisis. In the United States, we throw away 40 percent of our food supply each year, even though 49 million Americans don’t have enough to eat.
Since 1989, DC Central Kitchen has been a pioneer in the fight against food waste. We don’t just pick up wasted food in one place and drop it off at a shelter or nonprofit, hoping it can be used. We recover food from hundreds of donors, including local farms and wholesalers, and use it to prepare 5,000 balanced, nutrient-rich meals every day. We deliver our meals with dignity to 83 homeless shelters, halfway houses, and community organizations.
Best of all, we use the process of preparing these meals as a teaching tool and job opportunity for adults overcoming homelessness, incarceration, addiction, and trauma. Walk into our kitchen anytime, and you’ll see people who have found a second chance at DC Central Kitchen giving leftover food a second chance to feed someone in need. It’s a powerful cycle. But it doesn’t work without you.
Just because food is donated, that doesn’t mean our meals are free. Our food recovery and meal distribution program costs about $300,000 each month, or $2.14 per meal.
Please make a donation to DC Central Kitchen to reduce food waste and combat hunger today. Your gift will help employ graduates of our Culinary Job Training program, buy rarely-donated but essential ingredients, and maintain our fleet of trucks that deliver 5,000 meals each day.
