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Credit: PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF BRACKEN\u2019S KITCHEN<\/p>\nBracken\u2019s Kitchen launched in 2013 with a mission to serve nutritious and delicious meals to people in need and has since expanded with its Culinary Training Program. by Tina Borgatta<\/p>\n
Credit: PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF BRACKEN\u2019S KITCHEN<\/p>\n
After working in the kitchens of acclaimed restaurants and hotels such as The Peninsula Beverly Hills, The Four Seasons in Newport Beach, and The Island Hotel (remember Palm Terrace Restaurant?), Chef Bill Bracken began to heed a second calling. It was 2008, the economy was crashing, and unemployment began to spike. Bracken wanted to help in the way he knew best. That\u2019s when the idea for Bracken\u2019s Kitchen began to form.<\/p>\n
The nonprofit, which serves fine-dining-quality meals to people who may not be able to afford groceries, let alone eat at a nice restaurant, officially launched in 2013. The team has served many meals since then and has continued to grow with a food rescue program and a training program for budding chefs. Here\u2019s a by-the-numbers look at some of the group\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
18
Number of students in the Culinary Training Program\u2019s eighth class, which began instruction in January. In December, the program graduated 15 students.<\/p>\n
85%
Overall employment rate for students graduating the Culinary Training Program<\/p>\n
500,000+
Pounds of edible food the Rescued Food Program diverts from landfills each year. The team uses it to prepare tasty and nutritious meals.<\/p>\n
12 million+
Number of meals served to families, children, home-bound seniors, struggling college students, military veterans, and homeless folks since the nonprofit\u2019s founding<\/p>\n
1,831
Volunteers who provide Bracken\u2019s Kitchen with more than 15,670 hours of support per year<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bracken\u2019s Kitchen launched in 2013 with a mission to serve nutritious and delicious meals to people in need…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-261498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}