Episode description
Rates of both poverty and hunger are rising in America. The statistics are dire. The number of people living below the federal poverty line in the United States remains stuck at recession-era record levels. Poverty rates have grown even higher since the pandemic hit last year. A Northwestern University study in June revealed that food needs have doubled nationally. For households with children, food insecurity tripled!
One nonprofit in San Diego, California, Kitchens for Good, has created a dual solution for this double-edged problem: train community members who are food insecure in culinary careers. By training them for better jobs, their families will no longer suffer from poverty and food insecurity. For every person they train and help find employment, that is one less family living in poverty and going without food.
In this episode, we talk to one of the nonprofit’s founders, Aviva Paley, as well as one of their trainees, Tony Estrada. Tony tells me that his life has never been a fairy tale. But when he started the training at Kitchens for Good, his life was transformed.