Founded 2006 Location Washington, D.C. | Type Public charity | |
Founder Christine Carroll, Founder Focus Service Organization for Culinary Professionals Key people Christine Carroll - Founding DirectorViviana Acosta-Padial - Program Coordinator | ||
CulinaryCorps is an American non-profit organization that recruits culinary students and professionals to volunteer their professional skills on trips to communities in the United States.
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History
The organization was founded by Christine Carroll following a volunteer trip to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Carroll and other experienced culinary professionals were helping to repaint a local school when she conceived the idea of a food-focused volunteer organization. Upon returning home she launched CulinaryCorps to enable cooks to volunteer their professional skills to assist communities in need.
Carroll coined the term "culanthropy" (a portmanteau of the words "culinary" and "philanthropy") to describe the organization's brand of food-focused volunteerism.
Function
The organization recruits culinary students and professionals in the culinary industry to volunteer on week-long trips to communities in the United States. The objective of CulinaryCorps is to make a lasting impact on the community served, while simultaneously inspiring its volunteers to become lifelong champions of positive social change through food and cooking. CulinaryCorps members have volunteered on trips to New Orleans, Louisiana; the Mississippi Gulf Coast; and Puerto Rico.
Impact
In its first sixteen months, the organization launched five volunteer trips during which more than 3,500 meals were prepared by 76 volunteer cooks from across the United States. Since then, the organization has launched additional trips to New Orleans, the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and Puerto Rico. Each volunteer trip lasts about a week.
During each volunteer trip, the organization's team partners with a variety of local organizations to perform food-related projects for the local community's benefit. For example, in the New Orleans and Mississippi Gulf Coast regions, CulinaryCorps has partnered with many local and nonprofit organizations, including: