Before nonprofits can take our rightful seat at the table with public and for-profit sector players, we need to let go of some of the old mindsets and practices that have held us back for too long.

On any given day at DC Central Kitchen, you can meet men and women who have changed their lives through our Culinary Job Training program.

In a time when off-shoring and outsourcing are household words discussed around dinner tables by struggling families, smart investments in local economies are essential.

We're taking men and women who were previously dependent on the system and giving them the tools to make their lives better.

Training at-risk adults for culinary careers isn't easy work, and we're not perfect. In fact, we rely on dozens of partner agencies across the District of Columbia to support the progress of each individual client.

How many times have you heard someone say "The best chefs in the world are men?"

For the 14 weeks they spend in our Kitchen, our trainees are deeply involved in our daily effort to provide 5,000 meals to hungry and at-risk residents of Washington, D.C. It turns out that giving back can be addictive.

At DC Central Kitchen, we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on local farm products each year, pay living wages, and train men and women that others have written off as helpless, or even hopeless, for real careers.

Inside DC Central Kitchen, some amazing things happen. But the outside doesn't look like much. Our headquarters is in the basement of one of America's biggest homeless shelters. By the time most people walk down the dark hallway to find DCCK's front desk, they're usually pretty nervous.

Much like the gym, (for me) the hardest part of volunteering is getting there. And yes, the difficulty I speak of includes torturing myself by watchin...

DC Central Kitchen takes men and women who have been homeless, incarcerated, and addicted to drugs and throws them into this steaming pressure cooker. This might all sound crazy to you -- it certainly did to me when I landed a job here out of culinary school 15 years ago.

Hunger is a symptom of a bigger problem: poverty. That's why we started training the men and women who depended on soup kitchens and food pantries in the culinary arts, so they could get out of the soup line and onto the right track.

America's community kitchens and food banks will never feed our way out of hunger. That's why we try to shorten this city's line of hungry people by the way that we feed it.

Is this really what the idea of volunteering at a soup kitchen is all about? Those who donate their time are undoubtedly responsible for positive Christmas or Thanksgiving spirit, but the charity is cheapened by immature competitiveness amongst them.

Too often, people get stuck in their own worlds and opportunities to connect and help others are wasted. Both Move for Hunger and Urban Roots are thriving because they re-engineered traditional practices with innovative solutions by embracing the "win-win."

Joan's mom died about a year before Joan's troubles began. Her pregnancy, jail time and homelessness began after her once life-long guardian was no longer there to protect her.