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A CEREMONIAL RESOLUTION
21-65
IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
June 2, 2015
To honor the graduates of DC Central Kitchen’s 100th Culinary Job Training Program on July 10th 2015, the date of their graduation, recognize the success of the culinary job training program for residents of the District of Columbia, and declare July 10, 2015, as “DC Central Kitchen Day” in the District of Columbia.
WHEREAS, DC Central Kitchen began operations in 1989 with the belief that it could go beyond feeding the District’s underprivileged citizens and instead empower them to attain self-sufficiency;
WHEREAS, DC Central Kitchen launched the Culinary Job Training Program in 1990, enrolling District residents with histories of homelessness, addiction, incarceration, and chronic unemployment in a rigorous 3-month curriculum;
WHEREAS, the Culinary Job Training Program has produced 1,500 graduates over the past 25 years, offering them formal culinary skills, food handlers’ certifications, social support services, tough love, and hope;
WHEREAS, since the recession of 2008, DC Central Kitchen has produced 570 graduates with a 90% job placement rate;
WHEREAS, the success of DC Central Kitchen’s culinary graduates has inspired the launch of more than 60 like-minded culinary training programs and social enterprises across the United States;
WHEREAS, graduates of the Culinary Job Training program are 90% less likely to return to prison than other ex- offenders nationwide;
WHEREAS, women and men from the Culinary Job Training program have demonstrated their skills before 2 Presidents of the United States, a Nobel Prize winner, 4 Mayors of the District of Columbia, and dozens of District of Columbia Councilmembers, United States Congressmen, and United States Senators; and
WHEREAS, DC Central Kitchen’s Culinary Job Training Program has provided a path for District residents to rejoin their community, reunite their families, participate in our economy, and break the intergenerational cycle of hunger, homelessness, prison, and poverty.
IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, that the Council of the District of Columbia recognizes and honors DC Central Kitchen and its 100th Culinary Job Training Program Class for their efforts to strengthen the economy, broaden prosperity, and defeat hunger and poverty in the metropolitan area, and declares July 10, 2015, as “DC Central Kitchen Day” in the District of Columbia.
Sec. 2. This resolution may be cited as the “DC Central Kitchen Culinary Job Training Program Recognition Resolution of 2015”.
Sec. 3. This resolution shall take effect immediately upon the first date of publication in the District of Columbia Register.
