The meals we prepare are delivered free of charge to individuals and families who are in crisis due to a life-threatening illness. Teen Kitchen Project's mission is to build healthy community through food. Our primary program is our Meals Program, where professional chefs work in commercial kitchens teaching youth between 13-18 years of age how to prepare medically tailored meals. These meals are delivered to people suffering from critical and chronic illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, or recent surgery. Adult volunteer Delivery Angels deliver the meals throughout Santa Cruz County. Each delivery made to a client provides 7 meals per delivery, allowing the client to have food on hand for a few days. Our other programs, (not currently in session due to the pandemic) are our catering program, which provides job and job training for youth in the form of a catering business; our summer camps and after school classes for kids ages 7-12; and our adult cooking classes. Since the start of the pandemic, we have reduced the number of volunteers in the Meals Program kitchen to allow for social distancing and are no longer open to drop in volunteers and have a fixed group of teens working in our kitchen. We have closed our Watsonville and Santa Cruz kitchens and are working solely out of our Soquel location. The need for meal delivery to the community's most vulnerable has increased dramatically due to the pandemic and Teen Kitchen Project has met that demand. During the first half of 2020 we delivered over 30,000 meals and expect to deliver another 30,000 by years end, a 45% increase from 2019! Pre-pandemic we were lucky enough to have build a strong revenue stream that allowed us to not have to rely on donations from the general public as much. Now that we are unable to provide our programs and services due to social distancing guidelines, we are in need of donations now more than ever. Please consider a gift of any amount to keep our program serving those who need meal support and ensure this valuable program is available for youth in the future!
