St. Petersburg Central Kitchen

"Doing Our Fare Share"

Solving Hunger
Making Change
Getting Involved
Program Documents
Service Provider Survey 

Persistent Problem

The ability to obtain enough food for an active, healthy life is the most basic of human needs. Food insecure households cannot achieve this fundamental element of well-being. They are the ones in our country most likely to be hungry, undernourished, and in poor health, and the ones most in need of assistance.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, over 35.5 million Americans live in households considered to be food insecure, meaning they lack the ability to obtain sufficient food for their household. In Pinellas County, over 8 percent of households (that’s about 72,037 people) experience food insecurity. These are the working poor and their families, homebound elderly, and people experiencing homelessness. This often leads to low birth weights, higher anxiety levels, higher chronic illness counts and higher incidence of internalized behavior problems, especially among children. With food prices on the rise and 36 million Americans living in households that suffer hunger, we can no longer afford to let food go to waste. How can we effectively combat hunger while creating opportunity in today’s economic climate?

It is estimated that 48 million pounds of unused food from restaurants, grocery stores, hotels, institutions, food processors and other businesses are wasted every year. The annual value of this excess food is estimated at around $31 billion, according to the Economic Research Service. Yet, there is great potential for these businesses to recover and utilize their food waste and save money while meeting the needs of our community’s most vulnerable citizens.

Solving Hunger

The St. Petersburg Homeless Task Force, a component of PCCH, has developed a program that stops waste and creates opportunities to effectively combat hunger, homelessness, and unemployment in St. Petersburg. This program is called St. Petersburg Central Kitchen (SPCK), and it is modeled after the very successful D.C. Central Kitchen program. SPCK, the first of its kind in Florida since the passing of the Gleaner bill, is a community kitchen that will recover hundreds of pounds of surplus food each day that would otherwise go to waste, and turn it into thousands of meals for the hungry in the St. Petersburg area. It is a cohesive approach to solving the interconnected problems of poverty, hunger and homelessness while being environmentally responsible.

Making Change

The mission of SPCK is to use food as a tool to make change in the community, resulting in a healthier environment that sustains and empowers healthy people.

 The program’s overall goals are to:

1. Strengthen bodies, by safely recovering unserved, surplus food from local foodservice businesses to feed children and adults at partner agencies throughout the St. Petersburg area;
2. Empower minds, by providing culinary job training for unemployed men and women and community service opportunities for college students, youth and adults; and
3. Build community, by providing working examples, innovative solutions, and shared technology to create an effective network of agencies and citizens that use food to make change in their communities.

To fulfill these goals and objectives, this program will be implemented in five phases:

• Phase I – food recovery from the restaurants and meal distribution to the area meal sites and homeless shelters; the start date for this phase is early 2009;
• Phase II – culinary arts and food service training for homeless adults, giving them the opportunity to learn a marketable skill and gain satisfying, long-term employment;
• Phase III – a Campus Kitchen is hosted by a college or university, providing service learning opportunities for students, who coordinate food donations, and prepare and deliver meals to area meal sites;
• Phase IV – a dining facility will be opened to the public, and the chefs participating in Phase II will be responsible for preparing the daily meals; and,
• Phase V – offers opportunities for local farmers, urban gardeners and young entrepreneurs to sell fresh produce and develop product lines related to the Central Kitchen.

Within the first year, we expect to achieve the following impacts on the community:

• Reduce the number of food insecure households in St. Petersburg by 5% (that’s 3,500 households served by 7 service providers);
• Reduce by at least 5% the amount of money service providers spend on food/meals so that those dollars can be used to fund other direct services; and
• Reduce the amount (up to 5%) of money restaurants & food service facilities spend on solid waste disposal. 

There are many, many ways in which this program will benefit our community. Here are a few:

 · Saves restaurants & institutions thousands of dollars annually in reduced waste costs;

· Saves meal sites and homeless shelters thousands of dollars in reduced operational costs;

· Creates jobs in culinary arts and food service for unemployed homeless persons & the working poor;

· Reduces tons of waste going into local landfills; and

· Creates additional markets for local farmers and urban gardeners.

Getting Involved

Now you can see the great impact this program will have on the entire community. Here are a few suggestions on how you can become a part of this mission:

• Encourage St. Petersburg area food establishments to partner with us;
• Promote this program within your association or organization;
• Become a meal site partner by agreeing to receive prepared meals and snacks from SPCK and serve them without charge to individuals and families in need;
• Become a program partner by pledging financial support for start-up and/or operational costs; or
• Encourage your employees or members to volunteer two hours per month.

To find out how you can get involved, please contact Michael Johnson by calling (727) 528-5763 or e-mailing centralkitchen@pinellashomeless.org. For further program information, click on the links below.

Program Documents

Proposed Start-up Budget - FY2008-2009.doc

St. Petersburg Central Kitchen Brochure 2008 - Business and Associations.pdf

St. Petersburg Central Kitchen - Briefing Paper 2008-08-04.doc

St. Petersburg Central Kitchen PowerPoint Presentation

Service Provider Survey

Homeless service providers, who provide services such as onsite meals, emergency shelter, transitional housing, or safe haven, are invited to complete a survey regarding this program. To have a survey sent to you, click here. You may also complete the online version of the survey below.