You’ve seen the news. You know Washington, DC’s unemployment rate skyrocketed in 2025, and it remains higher now than in any other US state. With grocery costs spiraling and job losses mounting, 40% of DC residents are struggling to put food on the table. The future of our city has never felt more uncertain.
DC Central Kitchen’s trademark two-part recipe of providing healthy food and job training works in times like these. But we can’t feed and train record numbers of people this summer without your help. We have a $300,000 funding gap we need to fill by June 15 to place critical orders of fresh food and essential supplies, admit three more classes of culinary students, and commit to serving more than 70 locations with our summer meals and emergency food deliveries.
Here’s some good news: one local family is matching every gift, up to $150,000, between now and June 15. But that’s not all. On top of that generous match, we have 37 years of DC Central Kitchen know-how, a rock-solid plan for this summer…and you.
To put it simply, DC needs US.
DC Central Kitchen has a plan to fight poverty and hunger in DC right now:
- Serving more than 130,000 free, healthy summer meals to low-income kids who can’t count on school meals while most cafeterias are closed.
- Enrolling 90 more culinary students between now and mid-September, covering 100% of their training expenses (uniforms, supplies, workbooks, transportation) so they can focus on leaving poverty behind.
- Bringing discounted fruits and vegetables to more than 50 corner stores all summer long, so 15,000 low-income shoppers on tight budgets can purchase healthy food right in their own neighborhoods.
- Ramping up targeted deliveries of whole produce, fresh meals, and staple goods to communities that have been hit the hardest by sudden changes and job losses in DC—enough to feed more than 10,000 vulnerable families.
If you can fuel these goals with a generous donation, we’ll use your gift on the essentials. Food. Kitchen supplies. Living wages for our tireless front-line staff and culinary instructors. No gimmicks, no frills. Just impact and urgency.
We’ve got $300,000 to raise by June 15—while all gifts are being matched 100% by a local family—and we could really use your help right now by giving and spreading the word.
DC needs US to stay hopeful, care for others, and make a difference right now. Let’s do just that, together.
