All year long D.C. Central Kitchen helps feed people in need, and trains adults facing barriers to employment in culinary skills. But with Thanksgiving approaching, the operation is kicking into high gear.
Dozens of volunteers spent hours this week chopping fresh produce, packing meals and doing all the other prep work needed to meet a record need of 69,000 Thanksgiving meals.
“This is double our Thanksgiving output for last year’s record efforts,” said Alexander Moore, chief development officer at D.C. Central Kitchen.
Moore said part of the reason it’s able to do that is because the nonprofit is in a new facility in Southwest.
“That’s allowed us to take on new donations of food, purchase more food, work with more community partners,” he said.
He said the high volume of meals being produced also reflects the needs in the city.
“Unfortunately, our work is really necessary this year. Thirty-eight percent of D.C. residents are food insecure, meaning that they don’t have the food that they need to maintain their health and support themselves and their families,” Moore said.
D.C. Central Kitchen provides meals to nonprofits, shelters, halfway houses and schools around the region. It also provides culinary training to adults who may not have the opportunity to get the training other ways.
“Maybe histories of incarceration, homelessness and addiction,” Moore said of what he thinks is to blame for severe need in the city.
He said doing both things in the community works toward D.C. Central Kitchen’s goal of making its work less necessary in the long term. Many people choose to volunteer around the holidays, but Moore said the need is all year long.
“Come in January when that year-end, sort of holiday rush is over, and we really need those extra hands. We’re open everyday, but we need 60 to 90 volunteers everyday to keep pace,” he said.
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