DC Central Kitchen is thrilled to announce a new, focused effort offering nutritious meals and a greater sense of community to homeless and food insecure neighbors in DC. Thanks to the partnership of DC Public Library and the generous support of Bedford Falls Foundation – DAF, DCCK will be providing healthy, takeaway meals to Library patrons in need of additional food assistance. These meals will be offered at DCPL’s Coffee & Conversations events, where we will also deploy our staff to share information about our job training and nutrition programs.
Fueled by a $90,000 grant to DC Central Kitchen from Bedford Falls Foundation – DAF, this timely project builds on Coffee & Conversations, a DCPL event that connects people with peer support specialists, social service partners, and Library staff. DCCK served our first free meals to patrons attending the December 17 Coffee & Conversations at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. Going forward, we will be offering optional takeaway meals to patrons in need who attend these events, which are held up to three times per month at that location. Over time, the partnership will expand to up to six additional DCPL libraries hosting Coffee & Conversations across DC.
“DC Central Kitchen welcomes the opportunity to build on our partnership with DC Public Library,” says DC Central Kitchen CEO Mike Curtin, Jr. “This generous gift from Bedford Falls Foundation – DAF is an investment in safe and respectful spaces where we can demonstrate power of food, community, and effective programming.”
For nearly four years, we have been a proud partner of DCPL through our social enterprise cafe located at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. That cafe, Marianne’s by DC Central Kitchen, is named for Marianne Ali, who directed our Culinary Job Training and Community Meals programs during her transformative 20-year tenure with our organization. Before her passing in 2017, she was responsible for training nearly 2,000 people for culinary careers and distributing millions of meals to DC’s shelters, halfway houses, and support programs. “Every time I enter those doors, I think of Marianne and what she would expect us to do in service of our neighbors,” says Curtin. “This new, intentional partnership will help Library patrons facing food insecurity and homelessness meet their immediate needs while connecting with selected services that can advance their long-term health and progress—exactly what Marianne fought for every day.”
With its human services grantmaking, Bedford Falls Foundation and Bedford Falls Foundation – DAF collectively seek to support Washington, DC-area health and human services organizations that stabilize at-risk populations by ensuring basic needs are met and provide opportunities for economic stability. For DCCK and DCPL alike, this approach is a natural fit with our respective services and missions.
“The Bedford Falls Foundation – DAF’s support strengthens DC Public Library’s role as a trusted community space where people can connect with the District’s homelessness services,” said Rob Hartman, executive director of DC Public Library Foundation. “By funding DCPL’s housing support activities via a complementary grant and deepening the partnership with DC Central Kitchen, Bedford Falls Foundation – DAF is helping the Library connect more people with the city’s housing, health, and social service resources.”
About Bedford Falls Foundation
The Bedford Falls Foundation, a private foundation, and Bedford Falls Foundation – DAF, a donor advised fund advised by the foundation, were each established by Bill Conway Jr., co-founder and co-chairman of the global investment firm the Carlyle Group, and his late wife Joanne Barkett Conway. The shared mission of their nursing philanthropy is to remove financial barriers to a high-quality nursing education and supporting educational partners in addressing the critical nursing workforce shortage. In addition to nursing, the Foundation also supports health and human service initiatives in Washington, D.C. and Nashua, NH which provides pathway opportunities aimed at strengthening community well-being and access to care for our most vulnerable populations.
To learn more about Bedford Falls and the areas that it supports, please visit www.bedfordfallsfoundation.org.