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ANNUAL REPORT 2018/2019

Kitchens for Good

It was a huge year. You gave your time, resources, and heart to our kitchen and created more impact than ever before.
About

Changing Lives To Be...

Letter from Kitchens for Good

Dear Friends,

 

At Kitchens for Good, we are honing in on this truth: jobs are important, but careers are transformative. Careers allow our students to start again, leave their lives of poverty and incarceration behind, and move forward into a meaningful future.

 

With a focus on careers, this past year,  we came to fully appreciate the difference between cooks and bakers. Whenever we reached the “Introduction to Baking” lessons in the culinary curriculum, several students in each class would sit up straighter, take more notes, and become inspired to come up with their own creations in the kitchen. These students embraced the precision, the scientific approach, and the rules baking unapologetically demands. 

 

Building upon the success of our culinary apprenticeship program, we are  pleased to share that Kitchens for Good will be launching San Diego’s first certified Baking Apprenticeship program in 2020. This is a true example of the essence of Kitchens for Good: student-centric, innovative, and always working to best prepare our students to get a job, keep a job, and build a career. 

 

In the year ahead we will celebrate five years of operation, expand our programs into a third kitchen, run Luna Cafe at Moonlight Amphitheatre as a student-led enterprise, and graduate our first class of baking apprentices.  Whether you dine, donate or volunteer with us, please join us in the celebration of these next milestones.

 

Our growth and ongoing innovation would not be possible without your support.

 

Thank you,

 

The Team at Kitchens for Good

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The process of teaching

knife skills and life skills.

Kitchens for Good breaks the cycles of food waste, poverty, and hunger through innovative programs in workforce training, healthy food production, and social enterprise.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

EMMA EPES

CPA and Partner

EY

Board Chair

JULIANNE MARKOW

Chief Operation Officer

Voice of San Diego

Vice Chair + Board Treasurer

KAREN HENKEN

Professor of Practice 

University of San Diego

Board Secretary

JESS YUEN

Campaign Director

Rady Children's Hospital Foundation

MIKE IRWIN

Founder

Bottle Rocket Advisors

SERGIO ALVAREZ

COO

Bloom Health

SHAWN PARR

CEO and Guvner

Bulldog Drummond

JEFF JOHNSON

Executive Vice President

McKellar McGowan Real Estate Development

BOBBY RAMIREZ

General Manager

Centerplate at the

San Diego Convention Center

CHUCK SAMUELSON

Founder

Kitchens for Good

HOWARD SOLOMON

Founder

2.0 Solomon

CATHERINE BLAIR

Retired Educator

PROJECT LAUNCH

Our Goal for Next Year

  • Train 150 students

  • Launch a baking apprenticeship program 

  • Operate Cafe Luna at Moonlight Ampitheatre as a student run enterprise

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81%

OF GRADS RECEIVED A RAISE OR PROMOTION

85%

EMPLOYED POST GRADUATION

112

STUDENTS ENROLLED

Impact by the Numbers

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Only 4% of formerly incarcerated KFG grads go back to prison (compared to state average of 50%)

Kitchens for Good provides more than just job training. We provide hope for a better future. Through a certified culinary apprenticeship program, Kitchens for Good helps its students overcome histories of incarceration, homelessness, and foster-care by equipping them with a renewed self-confidence and skill set to become employed and self-sufficient in the culinary and hospitality industry.  The successful model combines hands-on training with classroom instruction, individual case management, life-skills coaching, and job placement services. Not only do students gain valuable skills, they contribute to bettering their community by preparing thousands of healthy meals for hungry San Diegans.

 

This year, Kitchens for Good celebrated its first students completing the 18 month culinary apprenticeship certificate from the Department of Apprenticeship Standards. This certificate requires graduates to complete 2,460 hours of on-the-job training in the culinary and hospitality industry.

Programs

PROJECT RECLAIM

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Impact by the Numbers

OF FOOD RESCUED

50,713 lbs

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  • Rescue 120,000 lbs of food

Our Goal for Next Year

Our Partners

  • Produce Good and Local Farmers Markets

  • Specialty Produce

  • Imperfect Foods

  • San Diego Food Bank

Project Reclaim prevents thousands of pounds of food from going to waste by redistributing it in the form of scratch-cooked meals to food-insecure San Diegans. The surplus and cosmetically imperfect food is rescued weekly from farmers markets and wholesalers. This product is brought to Kitchens for Good’s central kitchen, where it is sorted, washed and transformed into nutritious gourmet meals by culinary students and volunteers for hunger relief organizations.

Project Nourish

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Impact by the Numbers

MEALS PREPARED TOTAL

124,868

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Our Goal for Next Year

  • Prepare 227,000 meals including 179,200 youth meals

  • Engage 1,300 volunteers

40,597

MEALS FOR AT RISK YOUTH

1,081

VOLUNTEERS ENGAGED

One in seven San Diegans struggle to put food on their table and must make difficult choices between paying for food, paying for medicine, or rent. Through Project Nourish, culinary students, chefs, and volunteers prepared 124,868 nutritious and delicious meals to feed food-insecure children, seniors and families across San Diego. Kitchens for Good distributes these meals in partnership with other social service agencies and community programs including senior centers, after-school programs, low-income housing facilities, and homeless shelters.

​

In fiscal year 18-19,  Kitchens for Good deepened its commitment to fighting childhood hunger by expanding its youth meals programs and serving more than 40,597 meals to youth in afterschool and summer meal programs. Meal sties include city libraries, Parks and Recreation Centers, and YMCAs.

PROJECT KITCHEN

Impact by the Numbers

REVENUE GENERATED THROUGH SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

$2,136,078

  • Earn $2,689,000 in Earned Revenue

  • Provide paid on the job training to 150 students

Our Goal for Next Year

IN WAGES PAID TO STUDENTS

$84,104

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Out of our kitchen come several profitable endeavors including catering and events services, contract meal services, and the Luna Cafe at the Moonlight Amphitheatre in Vista. These enterprises provide more than just delicious food - they provide culinary students with essential on-the-job training and generate more than 50% of the organization's revenue.

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHTS

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IN THE NEWS

Looking Back at Our Great Events

Alumni Spotlight

FINANCIALS

REVENUE

EXPENSES

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Grants and Contributions
$2,268,308
50%
Earned Revenue
$2,136,078
47%
In-Kind
$124,163
3%
Programs
$3,276,923
83%
Management and General
$449,181
11%
Fundraising
$224,500
6%
financials-expenses.png

OUR SUPPORTERS

Everything we do is powered by our supporters, advocates, and partners. In 2018/19, that community grew larger, more passionate, and more generous than ever before.
 
Thank you for making our work possible.
Financias
Supporter

WITH YOUR HELP, WE CAN CONTINUE TO GROW OUR IMPACT

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