Earlier this month we launched a fundraising campaign to raise funds for a new 18-foot box truck. Refrigerated box trucks run about $150,000, and we need your support to raise enough funds to buy the truck we need.
Every day, DC Central Kitchen prepares more than 12,000 healthy meals for our community. That’s 15 low-income schools, 20 homeless shelters and halfway houses, 60 nonprofits, and 70 corner stores that count on our deliveries. When an investor supports DC Central Kitchen, they’re supporting this diverse and dedicated network of partners in the fight against hunger.
Our fleet of 15 trucks and dedicated team of full-time drivers recover donated food from wholesalers and grocers, pick up fresh crops from local farms, shuttle ingredients from our food hub in Northeast DC to our downtown production kitchen, and of course, deliver meals to our front-line partners.
Fifteen trucks may sound like a large fleet, but our trucks are out on the road every day, all day long. To reach our many partners, we plan our transportation routes carefully in advance. However, when we get an urgent call from a produce distributor, grocery store, or event venue unexpectedly offering thousands of pounds of perishable surplus food, we try to adjust our routes right away.
We know it’s a race against time to save that fresh produce or raw protein from the convenience of a dumpster. But sometimes, there simply isn’t a DC Central Kitchen vehicle available to pick up a time-sensitive food donation, or a large enough vehicle to take everything that’s offered. Too often, the dumpster wins.
By expanding our transportation fleet with a new box truck dedicated to food recovery, we will be able to accept more food donations and reduce food waste. It isn’t right to see so much food go to waste when so many of our neighbors are hungry.
With your donation toward purchasing a new box truck, we could recover as much as one million pounds of wasted food in our next fiscal year.
DC Central Kitchen’s innovative social ventures make Washington, DC a stronger, healthier, and more equitable community. Please donate today to help us make this critical investment in our capacity to reduce food waste and prepare high-quality meals for our most vulnerable neighbors.