Press Contact: Courtney Walsh
Email: courtney@tkc.org
Phone: (303) 875-9007
About The Kitchen Community
The Kitchen Community was established in 2011 by Hugo Matheson and Kimbal Musk, the owners of The Kitchen family of restaurants. The Kitchen Community believes in “community through food” by creating a future where every student has the opportunity to play, learn and grow in healthy communities. To build a better world for students at-risk, The Kitchen Community plants Learning Gardens in schools, primarily in high-risk areas, to provide an engaging outdoor classroom; thriving fruit, vegetable and flower gardens; and a gathering place for the whole community. In just three years since its inception, the organization has built over 200 Learning Gardens in Colorado, Chicago and Los Angeles reaching over 120,000 students in those areas. In 2015 and 2016, The Kitchen Community will continue to build in those cities while adding another 100 Learning Gardens in Memphis schools.
Press Overview Presentation
Click here to download a helpful slide presentation with more information, facts and photos about The Kitchen Community.
Download The Kitchen Community Logo Images
Organization History
Concerned by the growing childhood obesity epidemic and armed with insights from his involvement in family companies including Tesla, SpaceX, PayPal, and SolarCity, Kimbal Musk set out to find a scalable solution to the growing childhood obesity epidemic. Musk’s passion for entrepreneurship and his success as co-founder of The Kitchen family restaurants inspired him to create a non-profit that would use a scalable learning environment to encourage experiential learning and combat one of the greatest societal challenges of the 21st century, childhood obesity. Musk had been supporting traditional school garden programs and was dissatisfied with the rate of adoption. After researching the issue, Musk and his team created the Learning Garden concept – an outdoor classroom and experiential play-space with vegetables that was safe, affordable, and scalable. Learning Gardens redefine student connection to food by providing an opportunity to plant, care, harvest, and prepare food in an engaging academic setting. With SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity (and potentially Google) as thought partners, TKC is researching the development of a STEM program within its national network of Learning Garden schools.
About Learning Gardens
Designed to inspire and engage, Learning Gardens are attractive outdoor classrooms and experiential play spaces that connect kids to nutritious food. They are designed to inspire spontaneous play by children and to serve as an attractive hands-on teaching tool for educators. Learning Gardens can include curvilinear planting beds, art poles, bench seating, shade structures, and internal irrigation. Where urban school systems have banned making raised beds with timbers (due to materials breaking down and soil contamination). The Kitchen Community’s FDA approved, food-grade polyethylene beds are being adopted as a safer, more durable option. Learning Gardens are planted with organic vegetables, fruits and culinary herbs chosen by the school community.
Learning Garden Locations
Link here for a map of locations across America where Learning Gardens have been planted in schools and community organizations.
Photo Gallery
Link here for press ready images of Learning Gardens and some of the children our organization has impacted.
Our Team
Click here for bios and photos of our founders, managing director and designer as well as the names and titles of our entire team.
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