It’s time to deploy an army of home cooks to feed America’s hungry families.
America has an innovative new way to manage food security, home security and job creation and “it’s staring us in the face.
It’s today’s home cook who loves to cook, has a home kitchen, and wants to make enough money to pay their bills while staying from COVID19 at home.
They can also share the the food they love to eat and highlight favorite foods that reflect their cultural heritage.
“When they are licensed, the social enterprise ZipHomeChef can purchase food from home cooks to feed vulnerable populations in their community including some of America’s estimated 60 million hungry families and their children.â€
Networked on their inernet food service platform, licensed home cooks, including unemployed kitchen workers can now make money preparing home cooked meals while also serving a social purpose.
Over the past four months, the ZipHomeChef team, called “Zippers,†have prepared and delivered over 80,000 meals to the “housed†homeless in Riverside County as part of a successful multi-agency program called Project RoomKey. On holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas Zippers they can prepare and deliver meals that include traditional holiday foods.
Whether it’s a local emergency, or for disaster preparedness, “interested home cooks can now be quickly trained online and licensed as food handlers and kitchen safety managers,†says Parks.
Preparing and delivering food to others also reflects the diversity of diversity of cultures and food choices available in that community.
As a licensed home cook with a certified home kitchen, they can also receive training on how to prepare fresh, healthy and delicious home-cooked meals — including anti-inflammatory meals — for delivery to people in need, who live in their community or neighborhood.
This “first in the nation†approach to managing hunger also can be applied to feeding others, including the elderly, low-income children and families, and those with health issues who may be required to stay at home during the COVID-19 pandemic because “there is no room†at the local hospital.
“We’re now considered an “essential industry†in California,†Parks says, “offering food to those who may have none.â€