It was another record-setting summer at DC Central Kitchen. Putting our facility, mobile meals trucks, and community connections into overdrive, our team provided more than 127,000 free meals to kids and families in our neighborhoods this summer.
The majority of schoolchildren we feed throughout the school year depend on school for their meals. From September until June, kids from 3 all the way to 18-years-old get their most nutritious food in school cafeterias. And just because those grade schoolers, middle schoolers and high school students don’t have classes for two months every year, we don’t stop feeding any of those kids.
From June 24, the last day of the 2023-24 DCPS school year, to August 23, the first day of the 2024-24 DCPS school year, we served a total of 127,863 meals. That’s a 39.79% increase from the same time period last year!
Throughout the summer, we partnered with DC Department of Parks and Recreation, FRESHFARM Markets, plus camps and community programs, like the Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy and their YBA PLAY clinics, to distribute 93,222 healthy, delicious, free meals to kids and their families. We also opened cafeterias at select DCCK-supported DCPS schools, where we served over 34,600 hot, ready-to-eat meals during breakfast and lunch.
With school back in session, our Healthy School Food team members are excited to be back behind the lunch counters at the 31 schools citywide that we’re supporting this school year!
Photo by Jake Price