These are increasingly lean times for the folks at D.C. Central Kitchen.
They might not appear so during a typical morning's flurry, as a fleet of trucks begins returning with another ton of donated food, and the chefs start to work their magic with the current class of culinary trainees and that day's crew of volunteers. By early afternoon, another several thousand meals await delivery to seniors and the homeless, to ex-cons and the mentally ill, to addicts and others throughout the city and even in the suburbs who are badly down on their luck.
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Every corner of the operation, in the basement of the Federal City Shelter near Second and E streets NW, is in use. Flats of bread are parked against one wall. Depending on the day, the main walk-in freezer is piled high with vats of chili mac or salmon patties.
And yet: The nonprofit organization, one of the largest of its kind in the country, is worrying about the future. More specifically, it's worrying about its ability to sustain, much less grow, its massive response to enduring hunger in the community.
"We're struggling," said founder, president and chief executive Robert Egger, acknowledging that significant service reductions might be required. "We cannot continue to serve for free thousands of meals a day."
Though the kitchen has expanded greatly since Egger first envisioned it more than 16 years ago -- its chef training program, which goes beyond feeding to empowering, is a celebrated model -- the heart of its mission remains those meals.
They are prepared at little or no charge for shelters, recreation centers, senior housing, social service programs and street people. The kitchen does so largely by recycling donated ingredients, excess food that might otherwise be tossed. Yet that doesn't guarantee the most nutritionally balanced supplies, and in recent years the organization has augmented contributions with purchases now approaching $10,000 monthly.
"We could switch to rice and beans every day, but that's not what we're all about," said Michael F. Curtin Jr., a former restaurateur who now wears the hat of chief operating officer.
With no slack in demand, ever-tighter philanthropic funding, and rising costs of meat, produce and especially gasoline for the extensive pickup and delivery routes, the $6.6 million operation has been nearing a budget crossroads. Its leaders have hoped that the D.C. government, whose backing essentially amounts to free rent and utilities, would agree to an actual line-item appropriation. City officials quickly turned to the kitchen when they needed someone to feed Hurricane Katrina evacuees being brought to the D.C. Armory.
"We've reached a point . . . where we can't do this without a strong partnership with the city," Egger said.
Some cuts already have been discussed. Thanks to a foundation grant, the kitchen has long been supplying weekday lunches to the several dozen residents at Sarah's Circle, a housing program in the Adams Morgan area for low-income seniors. But the grant ended in 2004 and, given current circumstances, the kitchen recently told Sarah's Circle's Executive Director Ruth Sachs that the meals might, too.
"They do a wonderful job," she said. "It would just be a shame if funding did not permit them to continue serving the neediest in our community."
