“Cook as you would for your own family...with love.” - DC Central ...

Farmers
Co-op
new partners
& volunteers
Co-op volunteers spend nine hours
per week prepping fruits and vegetables,
providing us with the capacity to accept
more fresh food donations. Chopped
green peppers, collards, kale, squash,
potatoes and carrots are vacuum-sealed
by volunteers, frozen and used to create
healthy meals all year round. The health
and financial impact of the Co-op shift is
particularly evident in that we now serve
freshly chopped, seasoned and roasted
white and sweet potatoes in
place of tater tots!
New local partners, such as Prime
Foods based in Hyattsville, MD, donate
chicken bones, which are used to make 25
gallons of chicken stock each week,
allowing us to spend less on prepared stock
and serve meals lower in sodium.
Homemade granola bars, made by
Co-op shift volunteers are served to our
Healthy Returns and First Helping clients.
Our new vacuum sealer allows us to preserve fresh produce for healthy meals throughout the year
“ It’s smart business – buying surplus produce from local
farmers, creating jobs for our graduates, engaging volunteers
and community partners and stimulating the local economy.”
Brian MacNair, Chief Development Officer at DC Central Kitchen
“DCCK has reinvented the
customer. They have created a
revenue stream for us
that wasn’t there before.”
Mark Toigo, owner of Toigo Orchards
Volunteers prep fresh vegetables from the Farmers Co-op
The Co-op shift is a new program that helps sustain
local farmers, provides more nutritious meals
to our clients and engages a new group of evening
volunteers, three times a week. The fresh produce
purchased from local farmers is prepped by volunteers
and then either utilized immediately in meals or
vacuum-sealed for low produce generating months.