Last week, DC Central Kitchen welcomed 35 fellow members of the Catalyst Kitchens network to the Michael R. Klein Center for Jobs and Justice. The Catalyst Kitchens Northeast Regional Summit invited fellow community kitchens from up and down the East Coast for an intensive, high-energy training. Over the course of two days, our team members had the opportunity to share best practices, collaborate and network with members of this dynamic network of organizations, like DCCK, focused on supporting individuals with barriers to employment to launch and grow careers in the culinary field.
“At DC Central Kitchen, everything goes back to our mission. We use food as a tool to empower minds and build communities, and that’s exactly what this Regional Summit did,” says Dr. Beverley Wheeler, DC Central Kitchen’s Chief Knowledge Officer. “By sharing what works in our respective communities and focusing on how we all use food to take on the root cause of hunger—poverty—we are broadening our collective reach and leading positive change in the nonprofit sector.”
As part of the summit, DC Central Kitchen & Catalyst Kitchen staff led sessions on:
- Recruitment & Student Retention for Culinary Job Training Program
- Operations Roundtables on Local Sourcing and Menu Planning, Food Recovery, Sustainability, and Expanding Healthy Food Access
- Trauma-Informed Care Beyond the Program
- PR (Personal Relationships and Public Relations) for Your Nonprofit
- Human Resource Strategy for Career Pathways & Employing Program Graduates
DC Central Kitchen is proud to be a founding member of the Catalyst Kitchens network, which aims to share culinary training, social enterprise, and community meal distribution models with communities across the country. To learn more about Catalyst Kitchens, visit catalystkitchens.org.