San Diego Non-Profit, Kitchens for Good, Bridges Gap Between Food Waste + Hunger

Kitchens for Good (KFG) is a San Diego based non-profit founded on the belief that all food has power and all people have potential.

Kitchens for Good tackles the pervasive issues of poverty, hunger and food waste in San Diego. Nearly one in six San Diegans is food-insecure, lacking access to healthy, affordable foods or any food at all (San Diego Hunger Coalition, 2015). Meanwhile, 40 percent of perfectly edible food goes directly to the landfill because of cosmetic defects. However, KFG recognizes that food alone will never solve hunger, as hunger is ultimately a symptom of poverty. Among those hardest hit by poverty are those transitioning out of incarceration, homelessness, and foster care, who experience unemployment rates between 50 to 70 percent, presenting a huge waste of human potential, and a drain on social services.

Kitchens for Good takes a thoughtful approach by bridging the gap between wasted food and hunger by rescuing surplus and cosmetically imperfect food from wholesalers and farmers and engaging students in a culinary apprenticeship program to upcycle these ingredients into nutritious, scratch-made meals for hungry families. Kitchens for Good’s culinary apprenticeship program equips individuals labeled ‘unemployable’—due to histories of incarceration, homelessness or foster care—with the knife skills and life skills they need to launch meaningful careers, so they can succeed  and make a positive impact on their communities. This program engages culinary students, who encountered hunger themselves, in a daily opportunity to hone their skills while giving back during their training.

Students that graduate from the culinary apprenticeship program go on to work at many of San Diego’s top restaurants and hotels including Cucina Sorella, Bernardo Winery, Draft Republic, and Coronado Island Marriott, among others.

KFG has a strong track record of success. In just three and a half years, KFG has:

• Trained 327 individuals for jobs in the culinary industry, graduating 249 individuals (75% graduation rate)
• Achieved an 86% employment rate for culinary graduates at jobs with an average starting wage of $13.25 per hour
• Rescued 137,304 pounds of surplus food and upcycled this into 276,267 nutritious meals for the homeless, at-risk youth and seniors
• Developed a strong social enterprise catering operation that has generated $4.9 million in earned income and provided over 50% of the organization’s budget