D.C. Central Kitchen Continues to Serve Up Hope, Innovation in Down Economy
While most nonprofits have struggled, or even shuttered operations during the current economic free fall, D.C. Central Kitchen has managed to thrive.
“We’re the anti-soup kitchen,” says Curtin of the organization housed in a honeycomb of social service organizations on 2nd Street in Northwest, D.C. Practically speaking The Kitchen (as it’s known in shorthand) prepares meals for area shelters and provides culinary training to individuals primarily coming from the penal system. They don’t so much serve up meals as put individual empowerment on their menu.
Even in a down economy, however, The Kitchen has championed innovative measures that many for-profit restaurants have difficulty achieving on a regular basis.
Sustainablity Equals Profitability
Darnell Herndon is a 10-year veteran of D.C. Central Kitchen. Image: Amy Loeffler
One of the major innovations instituted by The Kitchen was initiating partnerships with local farmers in the Shenandoah Valley and Mennonite farming communities in Pennsylvania (a photo of a van emblazoned with the D.C. Central Kitchen logo parked next to a Mennonite buggy hangs in Curtin’s office). “Going sustainable was an enlightened self-interest to do better food cheaper,” says Curtin who is a former local restaurateur. He says the fare served now at The Kitchen’s catering business, Fresh Start Catering and distributed to its network of homeless shelters “is clearly of a higher caliber.” And according to Curtin over 75 percent of the food used by The Kitchen during this summer was local. Using locally sourced vegetables is not only trendier, but makes for a more nutrient dense product, no small matter when most of the clients eating one of the 4,000 meals produced at The Kitchen on a daily basis are nutritionally compromised. In fact on the day that I visit the staff and volunteers are making huge cauldrons of venison chili from locally sourced meat.
Using locally sourced produce and meat is not just a mechanism to go green, but a money making venture. Partnering with farmers who can’t sell “seconds” (produce that can’t be sold because it does not cosmetically or aesthetically meet standards) was a way to get better quality food at better prices than boutique re-sellers according to Curtin and turn sustainability into a “revenue generating social enterprise.” Once they started making regular food runs famers would also occasionally hand over surplus produce sitting in their barns. The Kitchen also generates revenue by making food runs for area restaurants like Zola’s and charging restaurateurs for the service. Using sustainable produce has been so successful that food supplier giants like SYSCO have actually taken note .
The Opportunity to Give Back
Despite the current economic free fall, The Kitchen’s Culinary Job Training program has also undergone improvements to make graduates of the program more employable. Aspects of the program such as exposing students to a wider range of cooking styles by bringing local chefs to the classroom have helped more students find and excel in full-time work.
Nick Alexander of Anacostia Senior High is one of the 11,000 volunteers who pass through D.C. Central Kitchen annually. Image: Amy Loeffler
Assistant Kitchen Director Gary Bullock has been working in the culinary industry in Washington, D.C. since he was 17. He is the only culinary staff member who did not come to D.C. Central Kitchen through the Culinary Job Training program. “I’ve always wanted to do something different. And this was real different,” says Bullock.
He teaches students in The Culinary Job Training program, often imparting more than the fundamentals of knife skills and learning how to flambé. “A lot of the guys and girls in this program just want someone to hear them out.” Bullock says. Over 70 percent of students are ex-offenders and 80 percent are in recovery and are recruited four times a year from the D.C. jail and a penitentiary in South Carolina.
Bullock makes a point to tells his students that he’s never been locked up, or in recovery, to demonstrate that he’s like them (he grew up in Petworth); that they have options; that cooking can be a path out of drug addiction and recidivism in the penal system. Students are taught job skills, conflict resolution skills, resume writing and they are drug tested on a regular basis.
While Gary Bullock may not enjoy the fame of a celebrity chef, he knows he is in a unique position. “I’m just a regular person,” said Bullock. “Just to be able to say I helped that person can go a long way. As frustrating as it gets sometimes, I have the opportunity to give so much back.”
A flyer announces locally sourced produce in every meal, including today's venison chili. Image: Amy Loeffler
What makes The Kitchen run on a daily basis are the 11,000 volunteers that pass through their doors and staff members like Darnell Herndon. Like a lot of staff who come through the Culinary Job Training Program he was a drug user living on the streets when he came here. When he ended up in front of a judge, the judge gave him a choice between going to an institution and D.C. Central Kitchen. He chose The Kitchen. “This is like a recovery zone,” said Herndon of the atmosphere at The Kitchen. Herndon has worked as the bakery manager for The Kitchen’s Fresh Start Catering and now works as a production manager during meal production. In his 10 years on various catering jobs he has met a cavalcade of political figures and celebrities including Bill and Hillary Clinton. “Very seldom do people leave here,” says Herndon, “It’s a family.”
Back in Mike Curtin’s office, I ask if he ever misses the rush of being “on the line” in a restaurant. He chuckles and says he probably romanticizes the good memories a bit too much and tends to forget the headaches. As a restaurateur he was always more interested in being cornerstone of his community than winning culinary awards. “It’s one thing to know [food] has the power to change lives. It’s one thing to see it. That’s why we’re so lucky at The Kitchen.”
–Amy
