A Fresh Take on Transforming Lives Nationally

February 10, 2022

For over 20 years, FareStart has helped organizations across the country increase economic mobility for individuals furthest from opportunity and most affected by poverty, homelessness and food insecurity. We have provided training, resources, technical assistance and support to nonprofits that share a commitment to reducing poverty and hunger through food-based job training social enterprises.

 

Catalyst Kitchens Membership Network Transitioning Towards Self-Governance

In 2011, FareStart launched Catalyst Kitchens as a program to support organizations across the United States to end joblessness, poverty and hunger. Catalyst Kitchens has been comprised of two key components:

  • Consulting services to help develop, launch and scale foodservice job training programs
  • A membership network to bring together like-minded nonprofit organizations to leverage resources and share best practices

Since its inception, the Catalyst Kitchens Membership Network has grown from 9 members to nearly 90, collectively trained over 30,000 individuals, connected over 16,000 individuals with jobs, provided 100 million community meals and invested $356 million in social enterprise revenues back into their communities.

As the network embarks on its next decade, we are excited to announce that the Catalyst Kitchens Membership Network will transition to a separate, self-governing organization. Catalyst Kitchens members will have the opportunity to own and drive peer connection and leverage their collective impact to garner resources for member organizations. This transition also will allow members to continue to grow the network in a new, fresh way.  

A temporary transition committee made up of Catalyst Kitchens Membership Network leaders has been set up independent of FareStart.  As a bridge to their own 501c3 status, this committee secured a third-party fiscal sponsor to host the network (Mission Edge), that will work with FareStart on the transfer of resources and will establish a new governing body for the membership network.

While FareStart will no longer steward the Catalyst Kitchens Membership Network, we are looking forward to continuing as a Catalyst Kitchens member and leveraging our experience by extending our consulting services to network members. Additionally, FareStart has provided an unrestricted grant to support the new self-governed network as it begins to take shape.

 

FareStart Consulting

Our team will continue to provide national impact through consulting services under the FareStart name and brand. Part of our new three-year strategic plan is focused on making significant shifts in how we go about our work and ensuring we center our efforts on communities furthest from opportunity and most affected by poverty, homelessness and food insecurity. We are committed to working with and supporting like-minded nonprofits with a shared goal of transformational impact where communities prosper, individuals thrive and poverty is disrupted.

FareStart is well-positioned to expand our consulting work based on our organization's 30-year history, collaborating with over 250 nonprofit organizations and employment partners locally and nationally in over 150 communities, in 44 states and territories across the country, as well as in Canada and Scotland.

Our consulting team has decades of combined expertise adapting national best practices to help clients design strong, effective programs that prepare individuals for jobs in the foodservice industry. We provide in-depth, customized program life cycle support to organizations based on a proven three-part model: empowerment through job training, impact through community engagement and sustainability through social enterprise. 

Learn more about FareStart’s consulting services and upcoming events focused on building and growing job training programs that transform lives.

 

FareStart is excited about the opportunities ahead for the Catalyst Kitchens Membership Network and our consulting work. We remain committed to offering the tools, services and leadership advice needed for social enterprise job training programs across the country to thrive and change lives.