Farestart 2014 Annual Report

2014 Annual Report LETTER FROM LEADERSHIP FARESTART 2014 BOARD OF DIRECTORS Dear FareStart Supporters, President: Craig Russell Ken Glass Phil Stalcup Starbucks Coffee Company Glass5 LLC Community Volunteer Some of our region’s most pressing social issues are right before our eyes. People living in poverty, families struggling with hunger, increasing homelessness. That is why your support of FareStart’s President Elect: Lisa Clarke Cate Hardy Norm Swick Rally Marketing Group PCC Natural Markets Community Volunteer programs means so much. Only with the continued investment of our community can we provide solutions to these problems and help people in need work toward self-sufficiency. Past President: David Linton Andrew J. Hogenson Lyn Tangen Bigelow, LLC Accenture Community Volunteer With a highly structured, safe and supportive environment to learn and practice culinary and Treasurer: Ken Hart Gregg Johnson Nicole Trimble life skills, our students graduate with an education that will serve them for life. FareStart’s Cornerstone Advisors Inc. Johnson Consulting Philanthropy Northwest chefs, trainers, and employment specialists balance compassion with high expectations for profes- Associates, LLC sionalism that meet the demands of the foodservice industry. Secretary: Rodger Kohn Sheryl Willert Tousley Brain Stephens Judy Meleliat Williams Kastner Aegis Living 2014 was a monumental year for FareStart as we expanded our programming to Beacon Bill Adamucci Megan Karch Hill’s iconic Pacific Tower. This move allows us the capacity to expand our employment and Community Funding Group Chris Schenck Chief Executive Officer, training programs by 60 percent over the next four years, and provides geographic access to Kilpatrick Townsend & FareStart Jeffrey Adelson Stockton students living south of Seattle. The Boeing Company Joanna Smith As a result of your support, FareStart has continued to build a strong foundation for our future: Alex Ceballos Community Volunteer Amazon.com, Inc. • In September 2014, our School Meals Program moved into Pacific Tower. This move has allowed the program to increase production by 13 percent and prepare more meals Connie Clark-Redmond than ever before for low-income child care centers and schools throughout our city, Bellevue College which extended our reach of healthy meals for children. • In addition, our national program, Catalyst Kitchens, moved into our expanded office space in Pacific Tower and welcomed 15 new organizations into the growing network of foodservice social enterprise organizations that use the FareStart model. • Breaking all previous records, Catering by FareStart provided fantastic food and service for 491 events in 2014, which helped give our students more high-level on-the-job training and increased revenue to support our mission. • In 2014, 88 percent of our Adult Culinary Program graduates started a job within 90 days of graduation. Further, our graduates’ starting wages increased from 2013’s average of $10.98 per hour to $11.57 and have continued to rise since. At FareStart, we are fortunate to witness growth and transformation every day. We see students transform their lives almost before our eyes, and we are lucky to be a part of their continued progress after they graduate. Within the pages of this, our 2014 Annual Report, we hope you see the significance your investment has on our students’ lives. Whether you give your time, talent or treasure to FareStart, thank you for helping to provide OUR MISSION the support we need to keep our programs innovative, solution-based and growing. FareStart provides a community that transforms lives With our sincere gratitude, by empowering homeless and disadvantaged men, women and families to achieve self-sufficiency through life skills, Craig Russell Megan Karch job training, and employment in the foodservice industry. President, Board of Directors Chief Executive Officer 2 | 2014 FARESTART ANNUAL REPORT 2014 FARESTART ANNUAL REPORT | 3 ISSUE: HUNGER AND NUTRITION ISSUE: BARRIERS TO SELF-SUFFICIENCY Solution: Healthy Meals for Our Community Solution: Job Training and Life Skills Not having enough to eat or only having meal from FareStart may be the only one Without employable skills and feeling and grocery industries, 88 percent access to food that lacks nutritional balance they eat all day. tossed aside by society or their family, of our students started a job within is all too common for both children and finding and keeping a job might seem 90 days of graduation. Our students Working in FareStart kitchens, side-by- adults in our region. Through FareStart’s impossible for many of our potential started their new jobs earning an side with chef instructors, our students School Meals Program, our students and students. average of $11.57 per hour, above learn about nutrition, food allergies chefs prepared 301,842 nutritious meals Seattle’s 2014 minimum wage. and dietary restrictions, as well as how After completion of FareStart’s in 2014 to feed children in 37 different to create meals made with fresh, local Adult Culinary Program, 112 adults FareStart’s employment specialists stay schools and child care centers. and seasonal ingredients that anyone graduated with new skills in 2014. in touch with students for a year or Continuing and celebrating FareStart’s would love to eat. Freshly prepared and With that training, along with life skills more—providing continued support so founding mission to serve healthful meals delivered, these meals also provide to model positive behaviors, classes to that graduates retain their jobs. Stable to those who need them, our Community our students an opportunity to give write cover letters and resumes, mock employment is essential for self- Meals Program provides hot meals to back, feel an immediate sense of interviews, and a network of vetted sufficiency, which is the essence 900 people living in facilities such as accomplishment in the kitchen, employers in the hospitality, elder care, of our mission. homeless shelters and hospice care and connect with the community. centers, 365 days a year. That hearty 20% of children in Washington State struggle to eat enough nutritious food “I wanted out, my addiction prevented me from seeing the 693,393 way out. That is when FareStart meals prepared for members of our came and offered a message of community 2014’s one-night count found hope and the chance to start anew while protecting my 3,123 PEOPLE sobriety. Every chef, every staff sleeping outside in King County— member had something to teach an increase of 14% over 2013 “When you impact one life, you along the way. All one needed impact many; when you impact was a sense of willingness for many lives, you impact your change and to learn.” 101 community.” businesses hired Adult Culinary 2014 FareStart graduate Program graduates in 2014 Megan Karch, FareStart CEO 4 | 2014 FARESTART ANNUAL REPORT 2014 FARESTART ANNUAL REPORT | 5 ISSUE: HOMELESS YOUTH ISSUE: POVERTY, HUNGER AND Solution: Opportunities for the Future HOMELESSNESS ACROSS AMERICA Being a teenager is hard in the best of week training program, students learn Solution: National Catalyst for Change circumstances. Teens who battle abuse, everything from making a great latte Until poverty, hunger and 9,000 people have been trained and addiction and poverty can be left with and keeping calm in a busy café to homelessness are eradicated, we more than 18.5 million meals have been a sense of hopelessness and self-doubt. advancing their education and setting have work to do. FareStart’s national produced for people in need during the In King County, more than 5,000 young goals. Last year, the youth in our program, Catalyst Kitchens, is a leader past four years. people don’t have a safe place to call training program achieved an 82 in the movement to eliminate these home and thousands more are at risk. For percent graduation rate, and 25 In 2014, Catalyst Kitchens’ network of 65 inequalities in the United States. these youth, surviving another day might percent of the students furthered their social enterprise and culinary education seem like a victory—or another challenge. education and completed their GED The impact of Catalyst Kitchens is organizations provided job training or enrolled in high school or college extraordinary. Since its launch in 2011, to more than 3,155 individuals Our youth program provides a place classes. our national program has provided and helped 1,801 individuals gain for young men and women to find hope. customized and affordable consulting to employment, which are the first steps In partnership with YouthCare, 60 teens The skills and experiences these youth emerging and developed foodservice toward self-sufficiency and ending and young adults graduated from receive are not a handout, but rather social enterprise organizations. Based poverty, hunger, joblessness and our Barista Training and Education a hand up and an opportunity for on FareStart’s proven model, more than homelessness. Program in 2014. During the nine- their future. MORE THAN 800 King County youth are homeless 31 businesses hired Barista Training “Having Catalyst Kitchens and Education Program graduates vet our business plan against in 2014 their proven model helped us... The collective knowledge and experience of the agencies in the Catalyst Kitchens network is an MORE THAN 1 IN 7 Americans live in poverty “I feel like I am somebody.” incredible resource to us…and I FareStart barista student consider them instrumental in our continued success.” 10,390,551 meals served

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