DC Central Kitchen receives $40,000 from the Walmart Foundation to Fight Poverty in the Nation’s Capital
Washington, DC (PRWEB) August 22, 2017 -- DC Central Kitchen today announced that the organization has received a $40,000 donation from Walmart and the Walmart Foundation to support their efforts to provide nutritious meals to DC residents and train jobless adults for careers in the food service industry. The grant — given to DC Central Kitchen 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.”
DC Central Kitchen 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.
To be considered for support, prospective grantee organizations must submit applications through the Walmart Foundation State Giving Program’s online grant application. Eligible applicants must have a current 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in order to meet the program’s minimum funding criteria. Additional information about the program’s funding guidelines and application process are available online at http://foundation.walmart.com/apply-for-grants/state-giving.
About DC Central Kitchen
As the nation’s first and leading community kitchen, DC Central Kitchen develops and operates social ventures targeting the cycle of hunger and poverty. The organization’s life-changing ventures provide culinary training to jobless adults, turn wasted food into balanced meals for shelters and nonprofits, expand access to healthy food, and provide healthy, scratch-cooked meals in low-income schools. These efforts have been recognized with the leading national award for healthy school food innovation, The Golden Carrot; the Washington Business Journal’s Green Business Award for Innovation; and the DC Chamber of Commerce’s Community Impact Award. To learn more, visit http://www.dccentralkitchen.org or follow @dcck on Twitter.
###
Erica Teti-Zilinskas, The Campus Kitchens Project, +1 (202) 847-0228, [email protected]
Share this article