On May 14, DCCK’s Volunteer Coordinator, Jessica, was publicly honored with the Capital One Bank Community Champions Award during halftime of the Mystics game.
The Mystics and Capital One Bank are working together to recognize our local DC heroes. At every Mystics home game this season, Capital One bank is honoring individuals who make a lasting difference on their community.
If you’ve ever volunteered with DC Central Kitchen before, you’ve likely met and worked with Jessica. As our Volunteer Coordinator, Jessica leads over 15,000 annual volunteers in helping to prepare 5,000 meals that we deliver each day to homeless shelters and partner nonprofits throughout DC.
Jessica approaches her current role with enthusiasm, and a unique perspective for visiting volunteers. She first arrived at DC Central Kitchen in 2011 as a court-ordered volunteer before enrolling as a student in the Culinary Job Training program. Later that year, soon after graduating from the 14-week training program, she was eager to return to DC Central Kitchen as an employee. She joined us full-time as a receptionist and has since been promoted twice, first to a Human Resources Assistant, and then in 2015 to her current role managing the volunteer program.
It’s no surprise to us why Jessica was honored with a Community Champion Award – we see the dedication and tenacity with which she approaches her job every day. But this recognition is just as meaningful for DCCK as it is for Jessica. The Capital One Foundation has been a longstanding supporter of our work for several years. Through their financial support of our Culinary Job Training program, Capital One allowed us to operate three to four additional classes of our Culinary Job Training program each year, beginning in 2014. This innovative capacity building partnership was also one of five projects featured in a recent report from the Aspen Institute’s Workforce Strategies Initiative.