What does it take to make 2,500 nutritious meals every day, 365 days a year? Recently, Young Professionals Council member Maggie Gori had the opporunity to find out the answer to this question when she sat down for a chat with Kevin Davidson, Project Open Hand Executive Chef and Director of Food Operations.
Born and raised in San Francisco, Kevin has spent almost his entire life cooking, eventually going to Paris in 1989 to attend culinary school. After working at Bay Area favorites such as Foreign Cinema and Garibalidi’s, he stumbled upon a listing to be a Chef for the Senior Lunch Program at Project Open Hand and applied for the job. That was two years ago. Today, Kevin leads meal planning and production for all Project Open Hand programs, creating medically-tailored meals for seniors as well as clients living with heart disease, cancer, diabetes and a wide range of critical illnesses. Overall, the Project Open Hand kitchen team under Kevin’s direction prepares 2,000-2,5000 meals daily, 365 days a year.
As Director of Food Operations, Kevin’s focus goes beyond providing healthy meals. Waste reduction is a core value in his kitchen with only one bin of trash being disposed of each day and food scraps being reused for stocks, soups, and broths. The Food Operations Team also engages with Project Open Hand clients, leading healthy food tours in the Tenderloin neighborhood (considered a food desert). Chef Kevin helps teach clients how to shop, read food labels, prepare and access nutritious foods, enabling them to make healthy choices beyond the food they receive from POH.
Kevin emphasizes that Project Open Hand’s most significant need - at the core of its ability to sustain its work – are the volunteers and donors who take the step to get involved.
Groups like the Young Professionals Council are critical and invaluable to our organization because they champion our mission, helping engage more people into the understanding that food insecurity is an epidemic.
He points out that Project Open Hand could not provide meals without immense help from volunteers. An average of 125 volunteers are needed per day at POH - working in the grocery centers, delivery, and senior dining rooms - with 45 of those volunteers working in the kitchen alone.