DC Central Kitchen has received a $40,000 donation from Walmart and the Walmart Foundation to support our efforts to provide nutritious meals to DC residents and train jobless adults for careers in the food service industry. The grant — given through the Walmart Foundation’s State Giving Program — will support the cost of preparing and delivering an additional 100,000 meals over last year to nourish an additional 500 children, adults, and seniors at risk of hunger and poor health while aiding in DC Central Kitchen’s annual effort to provide training and employment services to 100 at-risk adults.
“We continue to be humbled by the generosity of our partners at Walmart and the Walmart Foundation,” said DC Central Kitchen CEO Mike Curtin, Jr. “July marks nine years of partnering with Walmart not just to improve the lives of those in need today, but to help provide the tools our neighbors need to create paths to self-sufficiency for tomorrow. Walmart has supported this life-changing model for nearly a decade, and we look forward to continuing this work together to make our shared community a better place for everyone.”
“The Walmart Foundation is proud to provide continued support to our friends at DC Central Kitchen who are doing incredible work to address the root causes of hunger and poverty in Washington, DC,” said Jennifer Hoehn, Director of Public Affairs for Walmart. “By providing intensive, high-quality job training and preparing and delivering meals to children, adults and seniors, DC Central Kitchen is tackling both issues in innovative ways, helping our neighbors in DC to live better.”
DCCK prepares and delivers nearly 13,000 nutritious meals to District residents each day, and 3 million meals annually. Half of these meals are scratch-cooked for 15 low-income DC schools, with ingredients sourced directly from local farms. The other half, which are delivered to more than 80 DC homeless shelters, halfway houses, rehabilitation programs, and nonprofits, will combine purchased ingredients with 800,000 pounds of surplus food — mostly fresh produce and essential protein — that would otherwise go to waste. These meals will be prepared by graduates of our Culinary Job Training program for jobless and formerly incarcerated adults who now work at DC Central Kitchen full-time.
The contribution to DC Central Kitchen was made possible through the Walmart Foundation’s District of Columbia State Giving Program. Through this program, the Walmart Foundation supports organizations that create opportunities so people can live better. The Walmart Foundation State Giving Program strives to award grants that have a long-lasting, positive impact on communities across the U.S.