Robert Egger

Robert Egger is a nonprofit leader, author, speaker and activist. He founded the DC Central Kitchen, a nationally recognized "community kitchen" that collects leftover food from hospitality businesses and farms, and uses it to fuel a culinary arts job training program and provide meals to local service agencies. He is also the founder of Campus Kitchens Project and CForward. He founded the L.A. Kitchen in 2013 where he is currently CEO. 2Career During the 1980s, Egger managed nightclubs around Washington DC. Inspired by a volunteer experience feeding the needy, he founded the DC Central Kitchen in 1989, the country’s first “community kitchen,” where food donated by hospitality businesses and farms is used to fuel its nationally recognized culinary arts job training program. Since opening, the kitchen (which is an $12-million-a-year, self-sustaining social enterprise) has produced over 35 million meals and helped 1,500 men and women gain full-time employment. The Kitchen operates its own revenue-generating business, Fresh Start Catering, as well as the Campus Kitchens Project, which coordinates similar recycling/meal programs in over 57 colleges or high school kitchens. In addition, Egger founded CForward, an advocacy organization that promoted the economic role that nonprofits play in every community. In 2002, Egger served as interim director of the United Way National Capital Area for a year to reorganize the organization's executive leadership after accusations of financial mismanagement. In Washington DC, Robert was the founding chair of both the Mayor’s Commission on Nutrition, and Street Sense, Washington’s “homeless” newspaper. He was also the co-convener of the first Nonprofit Congress, held in Washington DC in 200