Power Station

When Paty Funegra was on Power Station one year ago, she told La Cocina VA’s founding story and promised to return with an update on a new capital campaign. La Cocina VA was already training and certifying unemployed Latino immigrants as food industry professionals. The next step was to scale the model, teach entrepreneurship, and serve the growing refugee population as well. 

La Cocina VA had an unlikely beginning. After immigrating to the US from Peru, Paty settled into a new career at a multinational organization. She discovered DC Central Kitchen, a small but powerful nonprofit which, under iconic leader Robert Eggers, trains jobless residents for culinary careers and brings healthy meals to urban food deserts. Paty set out to adapt this model in Northern Virginia, where the Latino immigrant community lacked access to training and jobs. Paty founded La Cocina VA, which starts by teaching English before preparing students for careers in the food industry. It also partners with employers to identify how to retain employees and ensure opportunities for advancement. La Cocina VA is now recognized as a replicable model for workforce development both nationally and internationally. It is a disruptor in a sector and field that needed this burst of energy and innovation.

Which brings us back to this latest conversation about La Cocina VA. The capitol campaign generated over $2 million for construction costs and ground has been broken for the Zero Barriers Training Center. It will include include a training center, kitchen incubator, Café, and technology center and promises to be a beacon for a immigrants, refugees, friends and neighbors. There is so much more to this conversation. Don’t miss it.

What makes health equity, the opportunity for all people to be healthy and thrive, possible? According to Dr. Brian Smedley, it starts with recognizing our nation's profound health disparities and the role of place and race in determining health outcomes. Data shows higher rates of mortality in communities of color where food options, quality of air, soil and the physical state of schools and housing, including exposure to lead, endanger residents. And people in rural areas are compromised by a lack of access to health resources and care. As executive director of National Collaborative for Health Equity, Brian Smedley believes that until we grapple with the injustice of these disparities we cannot change the conditions that marginalize whole communities. The Collaborative harnesses the talents of communities and health professionals, to transform systems and change lives.

 What makes health equity, the opportunity for all people to be healthy and thrive, possible? According to Dr. Brian Smedley, it starts with recognizing our nation’s profound health disparities and the role of place and race in determining health outcomes. Data shows that higher rates of mortality occur in communities of color where food options, quality of air, soil and the physical state of schools and housing, including exposure to lead, endanger residents. And people in rural areas are compromised by a lack of access to health resources and care. As executive director of National Collaborative for Health Equity, Brian Smedley works with policymakers, on-the-ground advocates and health systems to understand that these conditions are the consequences of public policies that sort and segregate people based on race and ethnicity. Until we grapple with the injustice of these policies, both historical and current, we cannot change the conditions that marginalize whole communities. This is the foundation on which National Collaborative for Health Equity is building the community-based infrastructure needed for a healthier future. The Collaborative works with coalitions, comprised of policy makers, the health industry, researchers and community groups, to change systems, from housing to schools to health care. This approach is based in the idea that all communities have power, strength and resiliency. The Collaborative harnesses the talents of communities, and the skills of health professionals, to transform systems and change lives. This is a growing movement that, as Brian reminds us, can withstand the reversal of progress we are experiencing now, into a more just future.

Two dynamic forces have come together to create opportunity and equity in Washington DC's historically underserved Black neighborhoods. One is Martha's Table, a nonprofit whose mission is to support strong children, strong families and strong communities. It transforms the lives of Ward 5, 6, 7 and 8 residents through high-quality education programs, access to healthy food, and family support services. Most recently, it opened The Commons, a 43,000 square foot facility in Ward 8, where babies are cared for, children learn to read, and parents shop in markets, at no cost, for delicious and healthy fruit and vegetables. The other factor is Kim Ford, an accomplished leader and DC native, who recently signed on as the new executive director. Kim, a veteran of the Obama Administration and the former Dean of Workforce Development at the University of the District of Columbia Community College, is a relentless champion of DC families. She sees herself as a partner to the residents that Martha's Table serves and rejects the notion of organizations as saviors and providers of second chances. This is the model of development that our communities need and deserve.

Two dynamic forces have come together to create opportunity and equity in Washington DC’s historically underserved neighborhoods. One is Martha’s Table, a nonprofit whose mission is to support strong children, strong families and strong communities. It transforms the lives of Ward 5, 6, 7 and 8 residents through high-quality education programs, access to healthy food, and ongoing family supports. Most recently, it opened The Commons, a 43,000 square foot facility in Ward 8, where babies are cared for, children learn to read, and parents shop in markets, at no cost, for delicious and healthy fruit and vegetables. The other factor is Kim Ford, an accomplished leader and DC native, who recently signed on as the new executive director. Kim, a veteran of the Obama Administration and the former Dean of Workforce Development at the University of the District of Columbia Community College, is a relentless champion of DC families. She sees herself as a partner to the residents that Martha’s Table serves. And, she rejects the notion of organizations as saviors and providers of second chances. Instead, she believes that residents are stepping up to provide themselves with first chances. Martha’s Table works every day with other community-based nonprofits, including Urban Alliance, Capital Area Food Bank, Jubilee Housing and Community of Hope and with City agencies to deliver the full complement of expertise a community needs to be successful. Part of being a strong community is the ability to take root and stay in place. The Commons communicates the expectation that the next stage of development in Ward 8 must include rather than displace current residents. That is the model of development that our communities need and deserve.

What does it take to unapologetically and intentionally show up in the world as your authentic self? How do you generate the cultural shifts required for all people to be free? These are thoughts that motivate David Johns in his leadership of the National Black Justice Coalition. David lives and works at the intersection of the Black and LGBTQ experience where these questions are fundamental to the everyday experience. He and his team advocate for public policies in housing, health, schools and criminal justice that are essential to the safety and security of African-American lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender people. David came to NBJC after serving, during the administration of President Barack Obama, as the first executive director of the White House Initiative for Educational Excellence. David is an unrelenting advocate who views the world as the kindergarten teacher he once was. He passionately pursues a better future for his students.

What does it take to unapologetically and intentionally show up in the world as your authentic self? How do you generate the cultural shifts required for all people to be free? These are thoughts that motivate David Johns in his leadership of the National Black Justice Coalition. David lives and works at the intersection of the Black and LGBTQ experience where these questions are fundamental to the everyday experience. He and his team advocate for public policies in housing, health, schools and criminal justice that are essential to the safety and security of African-American lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender people. And he extends his advocacy to broader networks because, as he explains, “You cannot purport to care about Black people unless you care about all Black people.” He acts on this understanding by challenging Black civil rights organizations to recognize and honor their LGBTQ members and pressing majority White LGBTQ groups to do the same for their Black constituents. In other words, he is a voice and a force for the unique needs of Black LGBTQ people. David came to NBJC after serving, during the administration of President Barack Obama, as the first executive director of the White House Initiative for Educational Excellence. In that role, he organized a series of Summits that provided a platform for African American LGBTQ youth who knew first-hand the feelings of isolation and marginalization by their schools and communities. And his policy acumen was earned on Capitol Hill, where he was a policy advisor to Senator Tom Harkin and Senator Ted Kennedy. At heart, David Johns, a true change maker, is still the kindergarten teacher he once was who passionately pursues a better future for his students.

As executive director of Groundswell, Michelle Moore leads with a deep conviction that solar power is an abundant source of energy that should also be a source of economic empowerment. She wants all communities to have access to clean energy and has developed a model for supplying it that has taken root in 5 states and Washington DC. Groundswell's Empower program enables market rate subscribers to purchase solar energy from a local power project and share the savings with low-income residents. This approach is cutting energy bills in half, creating a pathway for savings that low-income families need for rent, food and school. Groundswell also partners with community-based partners willing to host a power project on their land, rooftop or parking lot. Michelle knows the energy sector's strengths and weaknesses including a lack of racial and gender diversity in its executive leadership. She is a disruptor in the energy sector who wants the sector to look much more like the communities Groundswell serves. And she wants rural communities, like her own in La Grange, Georgia to be included in the energy conversation too.

As executive director of Groundswell, Michelle Moore leads with a deep conviction that solar power is an abundant source of energy that should also be a source of economic empowerment. She wants all communities to have access to clean energy and has developed a model for supplying it that has taken root in 5 states and Washington DC. The scriptural premise to love your neighbor as you love yourself is embedded in Groundswell’s Empower program. It enables market rate subscribers to purchase solar energy from a local power project and share the savings with low-income residents. This approach is cutting energy bills in half, creating a pathway for savings that low-income families need for rent, food and school. Groundswell also partners with community-based partners willing to host a power project on their land, rooftop or parking lot. These trusted institutions provide solar power to local households and engage them in bringing these projects to life. One example is in Washington DC’s Ward 7, where the Dupont Park 7th Day Adventist Church is bringing energy to 47 families at no cost to these residents. Michelle speaks with ease about building and financing energy infrastructure. She knows the sector’s strengths and weaknesses including a profound lack of racial and gender diversity in its executive leadership. She is a disruptor in the energy sector who wants the sector to look much more like the communities Groundswell serves. And she wants rural communities, like her own in La Grange, Georgia to be included in the energy conversation too. Her journey includes stints in the tech sector and as a sustainability expert in the Obama White House. At Groundswell she is using her expertise where it matters most, making connections that empower communities.

Chris Lu has spent the last 20 years at the hub of federal policy making, including as Deputy Secretary for the US Department of Labor, and he is still a champion of public service. As he says, government matters: it builds our roads and bridges, creates the laws that protect veterans, keeps our homeland secure and our air and water clean. He is guided by a belief in the capacity of government to make the American Dream possible for all families, including his own parents, who immigrated to the United States from China. Now a Fellow at the University of Virginia's Miller Center for Public Policy, Chris speaks often to young people who want to affect policy change. His advice is to think more expansively about where and how change is made. Chris sees innovation and problem-solving on issues from climate change to job training and Census implementation resting in local and state government, nonprofits and even mission-driven corporations. And he sees technology as crucial to the mostly calcified systems that nonprofits and companies use to manage government relations. Chris Lu is a believer in our collective potential to make change.