Through our network partners, Catalyst Kitchens and Feeding America, we have identified over 100 community kitchens across the country dedicated to improving lives and strengthening communities through culinary training. These programs offer individuals free culinary and life skills training that leads to increased confidence, better health and more employment opportunities. Our goal is to discover every organization that does this work and to create a community that shares best practices and effective curricula.
Our Support for Community Kitchens
The Jacques Pépin Foundation supports culinary arts education and job training. Our mission is in part realized by supporting non-profit, community-based, culinary arts training programs that offer life skills and culinary training to adults with high barriers to employment.
Thanks to all the prospective grantees for their submissions for 2021 funding. Grant opportunities for 2022 will be available early in 2022.
Since we started our grant program in 2019, we have granted over $600,000 to more than 35 different organizations nationwide. The pandemic has created desperate need, and we believe that culinary skills for the economic and physical health of under-served populations are more important than ever.
The JPF shares content from Jacques’ rich legacy of cookbooks and videos with community kitchens to be used as training materials or part of a lending library.
Beginning in 2018, the Foundation proudly distributed books and videos to community-based culinary arts training programs. Please see our Map of support for a listing of all the Community Kitchens served. Highlighting Jacques’ firm belief that learning culinary technique is an essential ingredient for success, the multimedia care packages included two technique-driven cookbooks, an accompanying educational DVD, Pépin’s autobiography and a copy of “The Art of the Craft”, an American Masters documentary film about Pépin.
In 2021, the JPF will release a collaborative online culinary curriculum with Rouxbe Online Culinary Education. The pandemic has made clear the need for on-line culinary training. The JPF has responded by creating an on-line course with Rouxbe to be released in October of 2021. The collaboration has also made possible discounted fundamental course offerings for our CK partners from Rouxbe.
We have created relationships with industry partners including OXO and Cuisinart. Each company has provided a steady stream of needed equipment to community kitchen partners in support of their culinary training programs.
Jacques and other JPF team members volunteer their time in community kitchens providing professional training to students. We also connect professional chefs who want to volunteer to community kitchens in their area.
Just in time for the holidays, The JPF released “Cook with Jacques Pépin & Friends: Volume 3” on Giving Tuesday. What started as a pandemic pivot to enrich lives and strengthen communities through culinary education has grown into a recurring series.
The JPF is partnering with Rouxbe Online Culinary School to provide an online course: Jacques Pepin, A Legacy of Technique. The course offers fans and aspiring cooks the opportunity to learn to cook more like Jacques, and even earn a college credited certificate!
For the 2021 holiday season, the JPF partnered with Woodford Reserve and Jacques Torres Chocolate on a limited-edition signature box of 12 bonbons.