The first time I went to Durham, North Carolina, future home of Triangle Central Kitchen, was to see the legendary writer Amiri Baraka. During an evening at the Hayti Heritage Center, he told stories, read poems, and shared his views on the upcoming 2000 US presidential election. Among his many insights that night, one declaration always stood out, “When you ask ‘Why?’ enough, you grow wise!”
I arrived at the Michael Klein Center in November 2023 with an empty notebook and Baraka’s words top of mind. I was not so much a stranger to DC Central Kitchen as a distant cousin who they hadn’t heard from or seen in a while. (My first efforts to bring a food justice model like theirs to the Research Triangle had ended as COVID began. While I continued to pay close attention to their work, a global pandemic felt like the wrong time for casual correspondence.)
In the years since my last conversations with DCCK’s leadership team, I’d been amazed by and curious about their special combination of persistence and innovation. Why had their model succeeded when others buckled? Why had they evolved their programming? Why this new space? Why now? Soo many whys…
At the end of my tour that day, I sat down in their long-time COO‘s office with some questions answered…and dozens more percolating. He was one of the first people I’d ever spoken to at DCCK, and he knew better than most that the end of my “1.0” had been anything but fun. From skepticism about the impact statistics of “those folks in the DC shelter basement” to outright ignorance around the need to address food insecurity to the often quiet but real roadblocks to being action-oriented in a market that literally has “research” in its name, many a hard lesson was learned during that time. After seeing the spectacular MKC, I knew I would have a new challenge ahead: making sure people understood that none of this was inevitable; and that none of it was about the building. Together, over the next hour, we laid it all out. I filled up most of that empty notebook. He told me to visit whenever I needed to. And then I got to work.
Since that day, I’ve done site visits from coast to coast, assembled a world-class board of directors, an advisory council, an operating model and team, identified a forever-home for our work, as well the architects and contractors to build it, and the impact investors needed to support the launch and expansion of our activities. Triangle Central Kitchen is now a few short months away from beginning to share our mission, transforming lives and building community through food and education at the inaugural Royal Ice Cream Summit, and then beginning our first Culinary Careers Training program.
So much of that rapid progress tracks directly to my ongoing visits, as of this writing, I believe 12 in total, to the MKC. Having the opportunity to work closely with the brilliant Dr. Beverley Wheeler to schedule and shape visits not just for myself, but for Triangle Central Kitchen’s operating team and board members, has been transformational to our collective learning and execution.
Alex J. Moore’s The Food Fighters is now a must-read for our team. His book is thorough, thoughtful, and truly deepens the reader’s appreciation of the challenging realities of working on the frontlines of hunger and poverty. And, since January 31, 2024, I’ve made it a point to attend DCCK’s quarterly graduation ceremonies. They are inspiring and beautiful moments, and incredible reminders of who and what is at the heart of our shared mission.
Beyond the incalculable direct utility of learning from the very best doing the work; beyond the special joy of seeing CJT students go from their early lessons to their graduation day to being part of the DCCK staff; beyond the many spirited dialogues with department directors and leadership at the MKC; beyond all of that, there is perhaps the most treasured part of my personal journey with DCCK: its founder, Robert Egger – whose early decision to make DCCK an open source sharer of nonprofit best practices was at the heart of my ongoing invitation to learn at the MKC.
I have had the privilege of meeting most of my living heroes. Robert is among them. He is one of the very few whose legend truly does not do his genius justice. We first met at DCCK’s 100th Graduation in 2015. I read his book and visited him at LA Kitchen not long after that. Now retired in New Mexico, he could have easily not engaged or simply left it to the current leadership to guide me along the way. Instead, true to his words and ethos, he chose to help. He invited me to visit him and his family in March 2024 and gave me his blessing to call my work Triangle Central Kitchen. He has travelled to North Carolina twice to ensure that work becomes a reality and enthusiastically joined our board of directors. And he has made time to speak with me every week to sort through challenges big and small. He is a legend, who became a mentor, and is now a friend.
His belief in me, our mission and our team has lit the way through many dark nights of the soul as we all bear witness to and confront the complex realities of the contemporary American landscape. And the unique balance of his visionary wisdom and the urgent practicality of his successor, Mike Curtin Jr., has served as a true forge, shaping and at times reimagining, my ideas into their strongest possible form.
My favorite space in the Klein Center is the landing between the first and second floors. It is a study in contrast. From there you can look out and see the swarm of activities at the heart of DCCK’s mission, but also a quiet corner where Robert’s words are carved into a long, beautiful wooden table. I send him a picture or video of that table every time I visit. It’s a striking reminder of not just the fulfillment of his vision, but of what continues to be possible when people work together and invest in, “the crazy, the untried, the difficult to believe.”
I do not know that it is advisable, or even possible, to replicate my journey with DC Central Kitchen. What I do know is that all of that time and travel, all of the learning and discourse, all of it has been instrumental in building Triangle Central Kitchen’s vision for the future into something impactful, innovative, and real in its ability to break through and create change.
Time will tell just how well all that we are building in North Carolina lives up to its name and to this moment. We are working hard to make sure it does. Thanks to Robert, his dream, and the many incredible people who continue to make it a reality each and every day in the nation’s capital, Triangle Central Kitchen is firmly on the path of relentless incrementalism, answering those many “Why?” questions – and posing some big new ones.