Thrive Market Is Spreading the Health at LA Kitchen

There’s a kitchen in downtown Los Angeles that’s causing quite a stir! The organization has a simple name—LA Kitchen—but it’s been serving up solutions to complicated problems since 2013. LA Kitchen believes neither food nor human potential should ever be squandered, and it’s working to transform the local community through innovative programs that focus on minimizing food waste, employing underserved groups, and distributing healthy meals.

A core program is culinary training. With a focus on marginalized groups like the formerly incarcerated, transitioning homeless, and youth aging out of foster care, LA Kitchen offers a 14-week program to teach trainees how to make healthy meals that are then donated to underserved populations across the city. This formula has a big impact, not only to those on the receiving end of a meal, but the budding chefs who learn professional skills and have access to resources that support them nutritionally and financially.

Our coordinator of social impact initiatives, Julian Landen, recently helped organize two recent Thrive Market donations. “Growing up around many family and friends that lacked the education and resources to live a healthy lifestyle, I’m very passionate about our mission and am extremely grateful that I get to help improve the lives of the less fortunate,” he said.

For a recent volunteer day, our staffers helped prep meal kits for LA Kitchen’s Super Senior Sites Program that supports low-income seniors by delivering healthy meals to their homes. Once a week, a chef-in-training comes along and provides nutritional education and recipe demos, too. Our first donation in June produced 225 meal kits for a total of 900 meals and 1,000 snacks, which was followed by another donation of 300 meal kits, serving seven to eight senior sites over the next two months.

We’re so appreciative to our Thrive Market members who, through their generous donations at checkout, help make these events possible!