La Soupe’s Capacity Building Program

cohort 2 Members of the capacity building program

Are you part of an organization committed to reducing food waste and increasing access to nutritious meals—utilizing the skills of professional chefs? 

We want to hear from you!

40% of the food we grow here in the US ends up in landfills and far too many of our neighbors are hungry. The Rescue | Transform | Share model resolves this problem utilizing professional chefs in a commissary environment. Our Capacity Building Program shares the key operational aspects of making a food rescue kitchen successful and scalable. 

The program, run in partnership with Second Helpings, includes weekly meetings focused on the key levers to implementing and scaling a rescue kitchen, on site visits to see the model in action, visits to your organization to support your projects, and access to tailored resources such as our operations guide.  

To apply for the program organizations must:

  • Have a trained chef on staff or be willing to hire one

  • Have experience with commercial food production and access to a commercial kitchen capable of volume meal production

    • Board of Health Licensure or similar

    • Servsafe training or willing to commit resources to training staff

  • Be a nonprofit organization with the capacity to commit to monthly training program

  • Demonstrate a commitment to rescuing, transforming and distributing healthy food to individuals experiencing food insecurity

  • Resources to attend on site training days

  • Complete application to participate in the program and contribute a participation fee of $5,000

We're looking for mission-driven groups ready to scale their impact. Previous participants came from organizations such as:

  • Kitchens using rescued food looking increase their impact on the community

  • Established Food Rescue Programs interested in operating a kitchen

  • Culinary / hospitality programs at community colleges looking to expand culinary offerings to benefit their communities

Program Offerings

  • Structured weekly program covering the key operational levers of the Rescue Transform Share Model

  • Community of support from La Soupe, Second Helpings and graduates of our first two cohorts

  • Operations guide and other tailored resources 

  • One on One mentoring with La Soupe and Second Helpings

Program Timeline

  • Applications accepted on a rolling basis June 1-August 1

  • La Soupe and Second Helpings will review and applications and notify organizations by August 15 

  • Launch Network program in September ($5k application fee due at launch)

  • 9-month program meeting weekly finishing in June of 2026

For more information about the Capacity Building Program and opportunities to partner with La Soupe, please reach out to Katie Funk at kfunk@lasoupe.org. 

See what our partners have to say about the program!

“The weekly training sessions are well-organized and informative, and the opportunity to model ourselves after a more developed program and learn from people who started where we are is priceless. It has also been beneficial to interact with fellow program participants and see what has and has not worked for them.”
— Stephany Below, Timothy’s Perrysburg Foundation
“There is so much nuance in food rescue, so this program is really great at breaking down those intricacies and helping to define them, but with slightly differing perspectives. I think that staff y’all have are wonderful and a main reason that we’ve found value in the program.”
— Sam Talarczyk, We Don’t Waste

La Soupe encourages all interested parties to reach out before submitting an application.