Bracken's Kitchen

Our mission is simple: Through food rescue, culinary training and our community feeding program we are committed to rescuing, re-purposing and restoring both food and lives.

Bracken’s Kitchen is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Orange County California. Founded in 2013 our mission is simple: Through food rescue, culinary training and our community feeding program we are committed to rescuing, re-purposing and restoring both food and lives. The heart of who we are can be found in a statement first uttered in 1957 by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr; “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others?”

At the core of our mission is a deep commitment to our nonprofit charity partners, business and professional supporters, volunteers, donors and employees. Our relationship with each and every one of these groups is as important to us as those we feed.

2025 ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

+ By the end of 2025, we served 2MM meals to those facing food insecurity. Meals were served to families, home bound seniors, struggling college students, military veterans and those battling homelessness.

+ We rescued 336 TONS of perfectly edible and delicious food that would've otherwise gone to waste!

+ We increased our reach over 60 Community Partners, many serving multiple locations.

+ Graduated 30 students from our Culinary Training Program!

2026 GOALS:

GOAL #1: Serve another 2.2MM meals to those in our community struggling with food insecurity.
We are looking forward to continuing at the pace we are currently keeping with community meal production by reaching out to even more partners to help us serve Orange County to the best of our ability.

GOAL #2: Rescue 400 tons of food
We specialize in using large quantities of food that would otherwise go to waste and using it to prepare nutritious meals for those in need. We are looking to rescue at least 400 tons of food again this year keeping it food from going into landfills unnecessarily, providing us with high-quality product from some of the finest purveyors of meat, fish, poultry and produce.

GOAL #3: Graduate 32 Students from the Culinary Training Program
Enroll up to 18 students in each class of our Culinary Training Program, with a goal of completing 2 cycles per year and an 80% graduation rate, culminating with meaningful employment in the food service industry for at least 32 graduates annually.

We are currently focused on the greater Orange County area with future expansion plans into the LA basin. With our mobile kitchen we are able to travel as near or far as the need demands.

Thank you so much for taking the time to look at our profile. At Bracken’s Kitchen we believe very strongly in the power of food to change lives in amazing ways. As human beings we all share two of the most basic needs for our very survival, the need to breathe and the need to eat. The problem is, air is free and food is not. It is that very need for survival that gives food so much power over our lives. We have learned very quickly that we are “delivering hope, one tasty meal at a time." Beyond the need to eat we are using food in even more powerful ways. By recovering high quality food from big food companies and turning it into tasty and nutritious meals we can impact more lives beyond our Food Truck Feeding Program. In the process we can teach and train at risk young adults the culinary arts giving them an opportunity for a life beyond the minimum wage world of poverty here in Southern California.