You might have read about Linda back in November when we shared her inspiring story as a former Culinary Job Training student who has become a long-tenured DC Central Kitchen employee and valued leader within our organization.
Linda, who once relied on meals from DC Central Kitchen before she enrolled in the job training program, now serves as our Production Manager at Kelly Miller Middle School – where she oversees the production of healthy, scratch-cooked meals for hundreds of DC school children. She is a key member of our Healthy School Food leadership team and was recently awarded the Robert Egger Good Business Award, given quarterly to a DC Central Kitchen employee who has made outstanding contributions to our entrepreneurial solutions to hunger and poverty.
On New Year’s Day, Linda celebrated another career milestone when she participated in the 2018 Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, California. Linda was selected to serve as the Mid-Atlantic representative on the Kaiser Permanente float, “Inspiring Healthy Communities,” which featured a whimsical community garden and encouraged people to eat healthy and thrive. A long-time supporter of DC Central Kitchen, Kaiser Permanente was integral to the launch of both of our Healthy School Food and Healthy Corners programs. We and Kaiser Permanente agreed that no one embodied the spirit of community-driven problem solving and progress better than Miss Linda.
We were thrilled to start the new year by seeing Linda’s familiar face, eager wave, and welcoming smile on live national television! She even led the crowd in a rousing rendition of the nae nae. For years, Linda has a been a devoted ambassador for DC Central Kitchen here in DC, and we were honored for her to take that work to a national scale. Please join us in congratulating Linda! We can’t wait to see what you will do next.