2015 ANNUAL REPORT LETTER FROM LEADERSHIP 2015 FARESTART Dear Friends, BOARD OF DIRECTORS Homelessness, joblessness, hunger and poverty know no President: Craig Russell Tricia McKay • Our Schools Meals Program, headquartered in Pacific Tower since Starbucks Coffee Company LUMA Consulting boundaries. Nearly 10,000 King County residents experienced 2014, increased meal production by 55% in one year’s time, homelessness in 2015, with nearly 40% of those individuals living delivering meals to 47 schools, childcare centers and after-school President Elect: Lisa Clarke Judy Meleliat unsheltered. On November 2, 2015, the City of Seattle and King programs. Amplero Aegis Living County proclaimed a state of emergency on the homelessness • The test phase of our Youth Culinary and Customer Service Past President: David Linton Chris Schenck crisis and committed to utilize adequate resources to fund new Bigelow, LLC Kilpatrick Townsend & shelters and other housing options in the region. Training Program started in September, from which six youth from Stockton LLP OUR MISSION Seattle Public Schools’ Interagency Academy graduated from our Secretary: Rodger Kohn At FareStart, we will continue to provide long-lasting solutions for eight-week training program. Tousley Brain Stephens Joanna Smith FareStart provides a people who are looking for a way out of homelessness, joblessness Community Volunteer Treasurer: Ken Hart and poverty. Last year, more than 836 men, women and • Our national program, Catalyst Kitchens, provided unique community that transforms consulting services to 119 organizations, advising on the launch or Cornerstone Advisors Inc. Phil Stalcup youth came to FareStart looking for their second chance. Not Community Volunteer everyone enrolls in our programs, yet we work with them to find expansion of foodservice training programs and social enterprise Bill Adamucci lives by empowering homeless the resources they need. businesses based on the FareStart model. Community Funding Group Norm Swick Community Volunteer and disadvantaged men, In 2015, we graduated a record-breaking number of As you review the pages of our 2015 Annual Report, we hope you see Jeffrey Adelson students—203—and because of the contributions from our how your investment in our programs and students provides a ripple The Boeing Company Lyn Tangen women and families to achieve Community Volunteer community of supporters, we are on track to graduate even more effect of transforming lives locally and globally. Alex Ceballos self-sufficiency through life skills, students going forward. Thank you for caring about our students, graduates and Amazon Nicole Trimble 100,000 community. Your support is increasingly valuable as we work to end job training, and employment It is our pleasure to reflect on how far we have come as an Connie Clark-Redmond Opportunities Initiative organization over the past year and build on our successes and homelessness, joblessness, hunger and poverty. Bellevue College in the foodservice industry. challenges, so that we may better serve our community locally and Sheryl Willert Gail DeGiulio Williams Kastner beyond. With our sincere gratitude, Global Partnerships Justice Mary I. Yu • Last year, 91% of our Adult Culinary Program graduates Cate Hardy Washington State started a new job within 90 days of their graduation and 75% of PCC Natural Markets Supreme Court those individuals remained employed after six months or more. Andrew J. Hogenson Megan Karch Craig Russell Megan Karch Ernst & Young • We continued to see an increase in our graduates’ wages, President, 2015 Board of Directors Chief Executive Officer Chief Executive Officer, providing greater self-sufficiency. In 2015, hourly starting wages Gregg Johnson FareStart increased from 2014’s rate of $11.57 to $13.92. Johnson Consulting Ex-Officio Member Associates, LLC 2 2015 FARESTART ANNUAL REPORT 2015 FARESTART ANNUAL REPORT 3 ISSUE: HOMELESS AND DISENGAGED YOUTH ISSUE: BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS TO EMPLOYMENT Solution: Graduating Success Solution: Training for the Future Nationally, there are more than 6.5 million youth disengaged from In collaboration with YouthCare, our 13-year-old Barista Poverty and joblessness is a perpetual cycle—especially and school and community meals programs. Everybody school and work. Locally, there are 20,000 young people 16 to and Customer Service Training Program gives at-risk and for people who fall in and out of homelessness, are in wins: our community gets great food and our students 24 in this demographic. Yet, it is not all bleak: studies show that homeless youth the opportunity to build a better future by recovery or have been incarcerated. Finding and keeping are on a path to self-sufficiency. about 75% of this population is hopeful or confident they will increasing their ability to develop a supportive community a job is difficult. Working at high-end restaurants and grocery stores, delis eventually achieve their life goals. and pursue educational or employment goals. In 2015, 64 At FareStart, we help people overcome the barriers to and elder care facilities, 91% of the graduates from our youth and young adults graduated from this program and In partnership with Seattle Public Schools’ Interagency Academy, employment by developing the work and life skills they Adult Culinary Program found good jobs within three 48 advanced their education or gained employment. FareStart launched our Youth Culinary and Customer Service need to have lifelong careers. In turn, their training and months, hired by one of our employment partners in Training Program in October 2015. While in the eight-week Equipped to move their lives forward, graduates from hard work fuels our restaurant, cafes, catering business, the region. program, students learn culinary, barista and customer service skills both of our youth programs are empowered to utilize in FareStart’s new Café @ Pac Tower while earning credit toward new tools for their future and successfully achieve their their high school diploma. The first cohort graduated six students. life goals. A child who experiences Homelessness increased Restaurants in Washington The average starting wage of our homelessness is 83% State are expecting graduates in 2015 was $13.92, a 20,000 graduation rate of students King County youth are neither 21% from our Barista and Customer in King County between 87% in school or employed 10% 20% more likely to drop out of school Service Training Program 2014 and 2015 job growth by 2023 increase from 2014 “This program can help get youth off the street. “I love recipes. Every Monday, FareStart gets new ingredients delivered that get put I survived and made myself a stronger and better person.” away in the pantry. I love looking at them and imagining all the possibilities.” – Kala, FareStart Barista and Customer Service Training Program Graduate – Diana, FareStart Adult Culinary Program Graduate 4 2015 FARESTART ANNUAL REPORT 2015 FARESTART ANNUAL REPORT 5 ISSUE: LIVING WITH HUNGER ISSUE: JOBLESSNESS, POVERTY Solution: Feeding Our Community AND HUNGER OUTSIDE KING COUNTY Too many people who live in poverty have a diet high in and hospice centers. We know that the food we deliver may Solution: Expanding FareStart’s Ripple Effect processed foods and low in nutritional value. Cooking food be the only meal they eat that day, and we create meals for those in need was FareStart’s founding mission and in tailored to their needs. One person, one job, one community at a time. employment and self-sufficiency and expanded FareStart’s 2015, we prepared and delivered 828,299 meals, both high positive effect in communities outside Seattle. While many school meal programs offer re-heated, In response to the growing need to replicate FareStart’s in nutrients and flavor, for people at 62 different schools, processed foods, FareStart provides a healthy alternative proven model in other communities, we launched Catalyst In the past four years, organizations in our network provided shelters, hospice care centers and other organizations around that kids love to eat; menus are created by our professional Kitchens in 2011. Our global program provides consulting to job training to more than 12,500 individuals, helped 6,332 Puget Sound. chefs with the dietary needs of children in mind and our incubate, launch and expand foodservice job training and individuals gain employment, and cooked 34 million meals Every day, FareStart chefs, students and volunteers produce students work alongside our chefs to prepare delicious social enterprise businesses across the country and beyond. for people in need. hot, well-balanced meals for low-income and homeless meals, including allergen-free and vegetarian options. From Los Angeles to New York and Canada to Scotland, people living in facilities like shelters, transitional housing our alliance of 65 member organizations trained 3,181 individuals in 2015, who developed job and life skills for Production of our meals Most Americans will spend at least FareStart provided consulting 91% to the community increased and support services for 1,408 828,299 of the contract meals we produced graduates of Catalyst Kitchens’ contract meals served ONE YEAR delivered to low-income and member organizations were to our community in 2015 19% below the poverty line between 119 disadvantaged individuals in 2015 ages 25 and 75 organizations in 2015 placed in new jobs “FareStart does a great job of exposing the kids to new foods and using veggies in “The Catalyst Kitchens team was fantastic. They engaged with our staff and listened to delicious ways. The cauliflower mac ‘n cheese is always a big hit!” what was working and what wasn’t. The net result was a more structured program... with the ability to train more students per year, at a reduced cost.” – Shannon, Teacher at University Temple Children’s School – Paul Fordham, Deputy Director of Homeward Bound of Marin 6 2015 FARESTART ANNUAL REPORT 2015 FARESTART ANNUAL REPORT 7 FareStart’s Circle of Impact recognizes annual giving from individual donors who give $1,000 or more and corporate and foundation donors who invest $5,000 or more in our mission during the year.