Friends,

35 years ago, DC Central Kitchen set out to turn the traditional soup kitchen model on its head by feeding our city’s deeper hunger for jobs, for respect, for opportunity. It wasn’t easy, and many doubted if leftover food could become nutritious meals and if people who had known homelessness and incarceration could become thriving culinary professionals. But they could, and through it all, we had friends and allies like you. As we mark our 35th anniversary, I want to thank you for your tremendous support and shared commitment to providing the healthy food, good jobs, and hope our city needs right now.

This annual report shares the impact your support had in the past year while reflecting on our larger journey since our founding in 1989. For three decades, we took our city’s biggest challenges from a cramped and crumbling shelter basement. In March 2023, we opened our long-awaited new headquarters, the Klein Center for Jobs and Justice in Southwest DC. This 36,000 square foot facility has already allowed us to double the number of healthy meals we serve in DC schools each day, more than double our output of nutritious summer meals for food insecure kids, expand our innovative solutions to urban food deserts and senior hunger, and dramatically increase enrollment in our acclaimed Culinary Job Training program. Our record-breaking results led Washington City Paper to name us DC’s Best Food Nonprofit, one of more than a half-dozen major awards for innovation, leadership, and community impact we received in 2023.

None of this year’s measurable results, or inspiring personal stories of triumph, would be possible without you. Hunger is still far too common in our city, with more than a third of our neighbors worried about affording enough food. We have too many young people and returning citizens struggling to launch real careers and achieve their potential. After the pain of the pandemic, many would say our city faces an uncertain future. But here’s what I’m certain of: after more than 12,800 consecutive days of serving our city, DC Central Kitchen will never stop stepping up for our community, and we’ll never have to do it alone. Thank you for believing in our solutions to hunger and poverty and for helping us bring them to more people and neighborhoods than ever before. I hope you enjoy this year’s report and I look forward to working with you to do big things in the year ahead.

Mike Curtin Jr.

CEO, DC Central Kitchen