Drawing on experiences as a restaurateur, Mike Curtin has expanded DC Central Kitchen’s revenue generating social enterprise. Fresh Start Catering includes traditional catering and contracts to provide locally-sourced, scratched-cooked meals to ten DC schools. DCCK generates about 60% of what it costs to run its programs through social enterprise and employs over 130 people, about 40% of whom are graduates of its nationally-recognized Culinary Job Training Program.
Its newest venture is Healthy Corners, which delivers fresh fruits and vegetables and healthy snacks to corner stores in DC’s food deserts. These efforts garnered the 2010 Mayor’s Environmental Excellence Award, the Washington Business Journal’s Green Business Award for Innovation in2010, and The DC Chamber of Commerce’s 2012 Community Impact Award.
Mike is on an advisory board for the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, a Board Member for the Common Market in Philadelphia, and a Chair Emeritus of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington.