Courageous Kitchen is registered as a public charity and by definition a non-political, non-religious charity. We also do not discriminate against anyone based on race or gender.

We teach cooking because we believe the ability to cook never ceases to be beneficial. There’s not much difference in providing knife skills to a child home alone who needs to feed younger siblings, and to a future chef. Some students will enjoy cooking activities more than others, but we believe everyone who participates will become more confident in the kitchen. This kitchen confidence is connected to overall self confidence, and is the main reason we aim to teach cooking (as well as English) to underprivileged youth. Other benefits include better nutrition and skills that can be used in a future vocation, whether culinary or otherwise.

Courageous Kitchen does not run an orphanage. People visiting orphanages or looking for volunteer opportunities with them is common in Thailand, so people often misunderstand this issue. Also, in the past Courageous Kitchen worked to provide safe housing to women and children who had been impacted by immigration detention in Thailand. Most of the children we support do have families, and we do our best to support them by supporting the entire family.

We do not have an office you can visit. Our cooking classes are hosted in Bangkok’s Bangna area, but our outreach takes place in another part of the city. For security reasons, we are purposely discreet about the location. Getting in contact with us online through our contact page is the easiest way to reach our team.

Courageous Kitchen is growing and we need more sponsors to help us reach more people. Sponsors are donors who give regularly, and we have a page for recurring donations to make this easy to setup.

A recurring donation is better than a one-time donation (even if the one time donation is larger), because budgeting funds is easier and donors who give monthly are more likely to be engaged with the activities and issues effecting the charity.

The majority of our funds are raised through our cooking classes in Bangkok. We also have a cooking class in San Diego and hope to add more cities in the future.

Additional funds are raised through donations, events, and the sale of products. Most of our donors are individuals passionate about food and human rights. We are not provided any regular support from any government, religious, or social organizations.

An ‘in-kind’ donation is where physical items are donated to a charity. For example, donating a bag of rice would be an “in-kind” donation.

Courageous Kitchen does accept in-kind donations of certain items. We do not accept clothing donations. 

If you are purchasing items, the best to buy are non perishable food items (rice, cooking oil, noodles, baby formula, canned foods, etc…), or toiletries (soap, shampoo, sanitary pads, body wash, etc.). In the past donors have collected unused items from hotels such as travel sized toothbrushes and shampoo to donate. We do not accept donations of expired items. 

Overhead is an accounting term used to describe the cost of doing business or running a large charity. Due to public mistrust of charities people often use overhead to evaluate whether a charity is worthy of their donation. However, we hope everyone understands overhead can be misleading and advise people not to give to charities they do not trust. We’d much prefer you come along to a cooking class or follow us on our facebook page until you get to know us better, than donating blindly.

Since we raise most of our own funding through cooking classes, our organization rarely has overhead that is funded by our donors. This may change as our organization grows, but currently we do not raise enough money in donations or grants for this to be an issue.

Courageous Kitchen has earned a silver transparency star from Guidestar, one the largest charity search and rating platforms. You can view our profile here.

Transparency refers to how willingly an organization discusses or discloses their financial dealings. Since Courageous Kitchen is registered as a public charity in the US, we already comply with all US government financial reporting requirements for 501c3 charities.

Still curious? Our 2017 Annual Report includes a statement on our commitment to transparency in more detail.

We teach outside of the city center, in the Don Muang district of Bangkok.

On an average Saturday we host upwards of 50 to 80 children. The ages of the children vary from pre-school (3-6), beginner (7-10), intermediate (11-14), and advanced class (15+). The supplementary classes are provided for free to the community and attendance is not mandatory.

Level 2 Volunteering – Interns and Core Team Members (3 Month Minimum)

This level of volunteering requires training in Bangkok’s refugee context, training in child protection practices, and 20+ hours volunteer teaching. In addition, a letter of recommendation from a professor or advisor is also required. Volunteers who meet these requirements will be entrusted to complete a variety of tasks, including specialized teaching, short training programs, mentoring, and well as self designed programs.

We do not provide volunteer visa to interns who have not yet arrived in the country. However, once you have arrived in the country and met other requirements, we will assist in providing the paperwork applying for a volunteer visa through a Thai embassy in a neighboring country.

We do not provide accommodations for interns. However, you can contact us for general advice on areas convenient to the project you will be assisting.

Yes, level 1 volunteers can be involved with other efforts including event planning, grant writing, and detention center visits.

No. Space is limited and with number of children and volunteers involved we don’t have room for observers.

Yes. If you speak English, you don’t need to have previous teaching experience. New teachers will be placed with an existing volunteer as an assistant teacher, and are not responsible creating a curriculum.