DC Central Kitchen — ”We fight hunger differently”

In the past, Lady Docs has volunteered as a group at DC Central Kitchen. Yesterday, I’m proud to say, we had the most volunteers they remember seeing there. During the week, graduates of their Culinary Job Training Program, who are now paid employees, prepare the food. On the weekends, generous donors, like Dr. Chitra Rajagopal, sponsor the day, and can then bring in 35 volunteers to help prepare the food that day.

From the presentation before we started working, and from the website, we see what an amazing organization it is. Their tag line is, “We fight hunger differently.” And they’re right. Their 90 partner restaurants, many of which you would recognize, donate food, and volunteers glean other produce from local farms from June through October.

With their in-house trained chefs, they then transform 3000 pounds of food that would otherwise be wasted into 5000 meals every single day. These are not canned and packaged foods; they’re fresh healthy meals prepared in-house with locally sourced ingredients. Last year alone, they delivered over a million pounds of food to homeless shelters, rehabilitation clinics and after-school programs.

On their website, they mention that they are available for catering, in which case the proceeds help them continue their work, and they can provide speakers. Cash donations or items from their Amazon Wish list are welcomed.

We were all grateful to have the opportunity to help out just one little bit for those in need – just one day out of 365. And appreciate the assistance of the staff to keep the process running smoothly. See the food prep below.

Check out their website – dccentralkitchen.org – it’s quite an amazing operation.