Chuck Samuelson-Founder & President, Kitchens for Good

Chuck Samuelson has spent a lifetime in the food service industry as a chef, restaurateur, and consultant. He started his career as a dishwasher at 13 and rose to Executive Chef and Restaurant General Manager in his late twenties. He has owned award-winning restaurants and catering companies and served as the Senior Manager for Food Services at Stone Brewing Company. While working as an Executive Chef at some of San Diego’s premiere restaurants, Samuelson was shocked at the tremendous amount of food being wasted while many in the community lacked access to nutritious food. Samuelson leveraged his network and skills to build a social enterprise that is designed to break the cycles of food waste, poverty and hunger in the community.

Kitchens for Good is a 501(c)(3) and social enterprise with the mission to break the cycles of food waste, hunger, and poverty through innovative solutions in workforce training, healthy food production, and social enterprise. Kitchens for Good bridges the gap between wasted food and hunger by rescuing surplus and cosmetically imperfect food from wholesalers and farmers and engaging students in a culinary apprenticeship program to transform these ingredients into nutritious meals for hungry families. This approach addresses the most immediate need of hunger by feeding the food lines, but also helps to shorten the line itself by giving unemployed people the skills to become self-sufficient. Through the power of kitchens and cooking, our students transform their lives from one of addiction, incarceration, homelessness, and unemployment, to lives of stability, employment, and a brighter future.

The talk will be about the ROI of Social Enterprise with Kitchens For Good as the model for how essential social good work can be more sustainable.  Kitchens For Good is a part of the new wave of “revenue first” nonprofits who seek to change communities through a more sustainable business model.  For every dollar donated to KFG, they match that dollar with earned revenue.