When it comes to milestone celebrations and eye-popping press releases, everyone prefers nice, round numbers. But in our experience, ugly numbers are where the impact is.
37 years ago, on January 20, 1989, DC Central Kitchen marked its first day of operations. A fast-talking nightclub manager named Robert Egger darted through the back doors of that night’s Inaugural balls, gathering leftovers before they cooled and shuttling them to the city’s shelters in his refrigerated van. (You can see our brand-new video interview with Robert reflecting on this anniversary milestone here!)
In our classroom, our 179th class of Culinary Job Training program students are having a tough conversation about personal responsibility and past hardships. This morning, they put on their white chef jackets for the first time after two weeks in plainclothes, reflecting how they’re beginning to see themselves: not as individuals taking a flyer on a free program, but a supportive group of emerging professionals in a city and an industry that need them. When they complete their training 11 weeks from now, these 29 students will join a community of more than 2,470 alumni who have overcome barriers like homelessness, incarceration, addiction, and trauma to launch meaningful culinary careers.
By day’s end, our lifetime tally of 56 million meals served since Robert’s first night on the job will creep up by another 17,219 dishes. 11,005 of these meals will nourish children at 32 schools across the city—up from 18 just two years ago and a level of scale that was unimaginable when we launched our first attempt at school meal services with a single partner, Washington Jesuit Academy, during the depths of the Great Recession in 2008.
Like today, the Great Recession brought increased demands for our services, a more challenging job market for our graduates, and an opportunity to define the future of DC. At that time, we responded with boldness and innovation:
- A data-driven focus on our training services on neighbors who had been incarcerated and unapologetically fighting for second chances.
- Doubling down on social enterprise approaches that invested in local farmers and brought sustainable revenue to DC Central Kitchen.
- Serving as a proof point for what policymakers hoped would be possible—higher quality school meals, healthier corner stores, reduced recidivism and chronic disease—by bringing those opportunities to the communities that needed and deserved them the most with an unrelenting commitment to creating jobs and smashing stereotypes.
That audacity paid off, setting us on an 18-year trajectory of continuous, mission-driven growth that culminated in a new headquarters in 2023 and record-setting results in 2025. As we mark another organizational anniversary here at the start of 2026, the challenges faced by DC Central Kitchen and the city we love are even greater.
For us, this isn’t a time to scale back with manageable targets, muddled beliefs, or muted values. It’s another time to be bold. More meals in more places for kids, seniors, veterans, and families. Rigorous training geared toward the food jobs of the future, not the past. New innovations that point the way to policy solutions while directly helping people with reduced benefits and fixed incomes to make healthy choices, no matter their neighborhood.
Over the last 37 years, we’ve learned that progress isn’t a straight line and life on the cutting edge can feel pretty jagged. But progress is possible when you show up with a clear sense of mission, a commitment to creativity and resourcefulness, and a mindset of what Robert called “relentless incrementalism.”
DC Central Kitchen has done just that as we’ve opened our doors without fail for 13,514 consecutive days, thanks to you. That’s one more ugly number—and one that shows how we’ve beaten the odds together. Happy DC Central Kitchen Day!