Arts
This week's guest on ORIGINS is Mike Curtin, CEO of DC Central Kitchen. After graduating from Williams College in 1986 with a BA in Religion, Mike lived and worked in Osaka, Japan as a teacher, copywriter, and bartender at his neighborhood pub. Upon returning to the US, Mike began a 20-year career in the hospitality business, which included owning and operating his own restaurant, The Broad Street Grill in Falls Church, Virginia, before joining DC Central Kitchen (DCCK). When Mike joined DCCK in 2004, he drew on his experiences as an entrepreneur in the restaurant business to expand the Kitchen’s social enterprise program from less than $500,000 in 2005 to over $7 million in 2014. Under his leadership, DCCK’s social enterprise portfolio expanded from a small catering outfit to include a full-service catering, contract meals, locally- sourced, scratched-cooked school meals and a wholesale program that delivers fresh produce and healthy snacks to corner stores in Washington, DC’s food deserts.