Name: Jen Lewin, Hugo Matheson and Kimbal Musk
Hometown: Boulder, CO
Job: Co-Founders of The Kitchen and The Kitchen Community
Consciously sourced ingredients are the driving philosophy of The Kitchen family of restaurants, founded in 2004 by Hugo Matheson, Kimbal Musk and Jen Lewin.
Their ongoing mission is “Community Through Food.” It means to carefully manage and maintain the sources of their ingredients to ensure the highest quality results and promote organically grown foods that support health and wellbeing.
In addition to sourcing natural and organic foods, as well as locally sourced products wherever possible, The Kitchen’s philosophy dictates that each and every purchase balances quality and cost with its social and environmental impact.
From the beginning, The Kitchen has supported various school garden organizations. Seeing the impact that one school garden had on a small community, the co-founders set out to create a program that would impact more students across the country. After researching the issue, Kimbal and Hugo created the Learning Garden concept – an outdoor classroom and experiential play-space designed by Jen Lewin, with vegetables that was safe, affordable and scalable. Together, they established The Kitchen Community (TKC) in 2011, a nonprofit with the goal of creating a future where every student has the opportunity to play, learn and grow in healthy communities.
To build a better world for students, TKC builds Learning Gardens in schoolyards, primarily in so- called “food deserts” and inner-city areas. In the less than four years since it was founded, TKC has built over 250 Learning Gardens in schools around the country in four major regions including Colorado, Chicago, Los Angeles and Memphis, reaching over 140,000 students everyday.
Through their Restaurant Entrepreneurship Program, TKC is also using the Learning Garden to engage high school age students as market growers for local restaurants, helping students develop confidence, leadership, creativity, and decision-making skills as they explore entrepreneurship with their peers.
For more information, please visit http://tkc.org, follow on Twitter @TheKitchenComm and Instagram @TheKitchenCommunity, or watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dzc6wB2hDM
