Student Lunch Debt is a national problem; we are attempting to help tackle and alleviate it locally. At Community Kitchen, we aim to provide nutritious and well-balanced lunches Monday thru Friday to children in need and provide weekend meals, afterschool meals, and a summer meal program. At Community Kitchen, we know that proper nutrition is crucial to a child’s success and academic performance, and we want each child to have the best opportunities for success.

 As the Founder of Community Kitchen, I, Robel Mamo am originally from Ethiopia, much of my family is still in Ethiopia, and part of my heart will always be in Ethiopia. My family who has emigrated to America actively involve themselves in charitable services locally and globally. My sister Berket Mamo founded a nonprofit, “Springs of Living Water,” that fights human trafficking in Ethiopia; we are working in tandem with her charity in any way that is needed. In Ethiopia, we are also actively working to build community gardens and hope to one day have a community kitchen to feed those in need and help alleviate poverty within the area.

 At Community Kitchen, we support our veterans; hosting lunches and dinners to honor those who have served our country and defended our freedom. We also provide a specific culinary education class for veterans to provide them with skills to help with job placement once they have returned home and are in need of jobs.

 At Community Kitchen, we like to meet our community's needs where their need to be met at that specific time. Therefore, we have a program that keeps us flexible and broad allowing us to tackle immediate issues and provide aid during moments of crisis. Community Kitchen will be happy to travel for outreach to areas hit by natural disasters like hurricanes and snow storms to provide those communities with food and basic needs. If a tragedy happens within our community we want to be prepared and respond immediately to this need.

Community Kitchen has partnered with Central Piedmont Community College to collaborate on our efforts to provide education to those in need. Our education program teaches restaurant culinary skills, essential nutrition and wellness skills, basic financial literacy, professional etiquette, and interview and job conduct skills to aid students in building their careers. Each class also has specific skills that we make into those specified programs; English as a second language, learning to cook with handicaps and disabilities, learning to cook and work in a high pace and stressful situations, time management, life skills, and other specified skill sets. Therefore, aiding each student and providing them with the most tools and opportunities allows them to craft their skills and have their individual needs met so they can reach their goals and build careers.

 As the founder of Community Kitchen, I, Robel Mamo emigrated to America from Ethiopia in my late teens. I was met here with warmth and acceptance as a new American. America is the land of opportunity; freedom and I truly believe in the American dream for all of my wonderful fellow Americans. America has given me so much, I met my wife in America, my beautiful children are American-born, I received an education at an American university and I am proud to say I am Ethiopian American. Therefore, our mission at its core is to uphold the American Dream for all of our fellow Americans and provide assistance wherever it may be needed and help aid my fellow Americans in building careers and aiding them in fulfilling their own American Dreams.

This program allows us at Community Kitchen to give perishable foods a second chance and cut down on food waste within our community. Our partners provide us with fruits and vegetables that we then process, pickle and can and turn around and put back on the shelves of food pantries and the shelves of those in need. This program is structured to be a hands up program instead of a hands out program.

 At Community Kitchen, we like to meet our community's needs where their need to be met at that specific time. Therefore, we have a program that keeps us flexible and broad allowing us to tackle immediate issues and provide aid during moments of crisis. Community Kitchen will be happy to travel for outreach to areas hit by natural disasters like hurricanes and snow storms to provide those communities with food and basic needs. If a tragedy happens within our community we want to be prepared and respond immediately to this need.