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.
The Jacques Pépin Foundation supports culinary arts education and 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.
With over $100K available, our 2019 grant program represents our next level effort to advance culinary training through CBCATs. This request for proposals (RFP) is for existing CBCATs who are raising capital to formalize their culinary training program, join a community kitchen network, improve facilities, expand their programming, or in other ways directly improve their teaching. We are accepting bids for $5,000 - $10,000 grants that will directly improve the teaching of culinary skills to disadvantaged adults or at-risk youths.
Our goal is to raise visibility and support for community kitchens across the country. In 2019, we will initiate a program offering $10K grants to at least 10 different community kitchens. In addition, our efforts include
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.
In 2018, the Foundation proudly distributed books and videos to over 20 community-based culinary arts training programs. 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 2019, the JPF will continue this distribution and in addition will work to create a consolidated library of Jacques’ videos and a catalog of demonstrated techniques to be utilized in community kitchen curricula across the country.
OXO provided 20 community-based culinary arts training programs each with $500 worth of their universal design tools, including peelers, gloves, can openers, whisks, mixing bowl sets and knives. OXO has anniversaried this commitment for an additional 10K in 2019. Thank you to OXO for being one of our valued industry partners!
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.
Our second annual fundraiser was a beautiful and exciting evening of familial warmth and incredible generosity. The room was filled with friends new and old in support of our mission to improve lives through culinary training. Headliner, and Nobel peace prize nominee, José Andres brought the crowd roaring to their feet, and offered the JPF his full support, capping more than $425,000 in donations.
On December 5th, the Jacques Pépin Foundation celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Culinary Arts Certificate program at Boston University, which was created by Jacques, Julia Child and Rebecca Alssid. The event was an extraordinary outpouring of love and support for JP, and the program, and culinary arts.
The JPF is proud to have been a ‘Visionary Sponsor’ of the first collaborative meeting of Community Kitchen Organizers from both the Catalyst Kitchens and the Feeding America networks