What We Do

What We Do

Each CulinaryCorps trip starts with the recruitment of 10-12 volunteer chefs via a comprehensive application process. Once chosen, the team embarks on a week-long service trip to the chosen community implementing our project initiatives custom-designed for our project partners. Our previous efforts have centered on the rebuilding efforts and culinary renaissance of New Orleans, LA, the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Puerto Rico. In 2013, we embarked upon our first trip to Camp Sunshine, a facility serving kids with life-threatening illnesses and their families, and in 2017 we launched a new trip to Houston, Texas.

What We Have Done

Since our inception in 2006, CulinaryCorps has recruited over 150 chef-volunteers for 11 week-long volunteer trips to New Orleans, Mississippi, Maine, and Puerto Rico.

Over 7,500 volunteer hours have been spent in the communities we have visited, serving over 5,000 children and adults through food and cooking. In addition to sweat equity, over $150,000 in donations have either been spent locally in the cities served or donated directly to support the missions of our project partners. A win-win for everyone!

Projects vary from trip to trip but include events such as:

  1. Spending a day with Edible Schoolyard in New Orleans.
  2. Working behind the stoves at Bill’s Kitchen, an organization that serves daily hot meals to people living with HIV/AIDS in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
  3. Launching an after-school cooking curriculum Cooking at the Club for The Boys and Girls Club of the Gulf Coast
  4. Feeding hundreds of Habitat for Humanity volunteers building houses in New Orleans and Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina.
  5. Cooking for Liberty’s Kitchen very first fundraiser, a job training program focusing on the culinary arts.

CulinaryCorps Trip History

  1. March 2007: New Orleans (18 Chefs)
  2. June 2007: New Orleans (12 Chefs)
  3. September 2007: New Orleans and Mississippi (10 Chefs)
  4. December 2007: New Orleans, St.Bernard Parish and Mississippi (12 Chefs)
  5. June 2008: New Orleans, St.Bernard Parish and Mississippi (12 Chefs)
  6. April 2009: New Orleans, St.Bernard Parish and Mississippi (12 Chefs)
  7. February 2010: Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (10 chefs)
  8. November 2011: New Orleans and Mississippi (12 chefs)
  9. August 2013: Lake Sebago (Camp Sunshine), Maine (10 chefs)
  10. July 2014: Lake Sebago (Camp Sunshine), Maine (10 chefs)
  11. August 2015: Lake Sebago (Camp Sunshine), Maine (10 chefs)
  12. July 2017: Houston, Texas (10 chefs)
  13. August 2018: Lake Sebago (Camp Sunshine), Maine (10 chefs)