Several months in the works, and our 2017 Courageous Kitchen Annual Report is now available for download. The annual report is a summary of all of our activities serving up nutrition to Bangkok’s neediest communities in 2017. This recap will help give you an idea of the type of work we do, the impact of our efforts, and the direction our organization is focused on growing in 2018 and beyond. If you’re unfamiliar with our work, this is a good place for you to start to learn about our organization in more depth.
In 2017 we saw our biggest year yet, raising nearly $35,000 in combined donations and our own fundraising efforts. This was our first year gainfully employing one full-time administrative staff, and two young adults from the marginalized community we serve. While this may seem like a small stride, the changes indicate a huge leap forward for our CK family, as we transition from a miniature grassroots organization to a fledgling social enterprise.
Our team has been cooking with children for 5 years, but only in 2017 did we launch our enterprise offering premium cooking classes to tourists visiting Bangkok. Now we have different classes to choose from in Bangkok, and have begun slowly expanding classes in the US. We are also proud to announce our non-profit was awarded a Silver rating for transparency on Guidestar —one of the United States largest charity search and rating platforms.
Midway through 2018 and we’re full steam ahead preparing strategic plans and applying for grants to help us continue to grow in the coming years. Our hope is that after reading the 2017 annual report, you have a better understanding of where your dollars are going and how much impact you’re actually making. We hope that with passionate individuals like you, we will continue to create positive change in the world by aiding vulnerable communities. With limited staff and a gaggle of volunteers, we have achieved amazing results, but we are now ready to grow our team so that we can sustain our momentum and increase future impact.
$400 – helps pay for free English classes, pre-school activities, and provides hot lunches for the younger students who are unable to attend formal schooling.
$850 – provides a full month of vocational training such as; English tutoring, one on one mentoring, and cooking lessons for our students.
$1,300 – supports an entire community with food distribution, medical aid and housing relief for one month
$5,000 – helps to pay one full time refugee staff salary for an entire year.
Again, we thank you for your continued efforts to support Courageous Kitchen. Engage with us as we grow in 2018, we appreciate having each of you along with us on this special journey.
How to Download Our Annual Report: On the page for the annual report proceed with checkout. The report is offered for free, but you do have the option to donate to help cover the costs of creating the report. If you don’t wish to donate, be sure to indicate “0” as your price, and proceed with the checkout process. However, all donations are appreciated, and each person downloading will receive a confirmation signup for our newsletter (also optional).
This month we’re hosting some events in Bangkok to encourage more of our supporters to consider becoming a sponsor to families Courageous Kitchen supports each month. These are simply families struggling in the communities we serve. Often they have students participating in our pre-school or our Saturday classes for teens.
The educational support we provide free, creates an environment where we can befriend families and find out more about them. For instance, inquiring about a missing student could lead us to find they have been hospitalized or cannot participate in classes because they’re caring for a sick parent. In these instances, we’re able to intervene with emergency support for medical, housing, and food needs. This is only possible because of our recurring donors who give $50 or less each month, most of them giving around $10.
Our larger donors allow us to reach out to a family in need and transform their circumstance by giving them some stability. For example, we recently had a donor wanting to help with medical needs. Their desire to help was timely because one of our teen girls had two younger siblings who had been in and out of the hospital. The worried parents had taken the children to the hospital so often, they owed medical bills that would take them months and month to pay back. Worse than the stack of medical bills was that the children’s health had also not been improving.
Today they are incredibly thankful to their sponsor. In a short amount of time they were able to use the extra sponsorship money to get the sick siblings to a better hospital, begin paying their old debts, and not have to worry about pulling their eldest daughter from classes simply because they could not afford both the medical bills and her tuition.
With your help we can give this piece of mind to more struggling families by bolstering their ability to put food on the table, live in safe housing, and send their children to school. That’s what we’re really all about! Please keep us in mind this holiday and consider sponsoring a family. If you have any questions about the donation process, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Thank you and wishing a belated happy Thanksgiving to all of our supporters!
The great photos in the update are the work of volunteer photographer Kelly Tobias.
In a way, the kitchen is just like the real world.
It can be a scary place to navigate on your own. Each of us need people who guide us into life’s arenas and illuminate us with wisdom that makes what was dark and and dangerous seem familiar and even friendly.
“A safe place to fail is an easy place to learn…”
That’s the goal of the Courageous Kitchen. We aren’t only building up young cooks, but we’re bolstering well rounded, amazing young people who will lead their community into the future.
We do that by giving them a safe place to fail. A place where they can make mistakes, get second chances, and learn to cope and rebound from failure.
What has failing with the proper support taught you in the kitchen or elsewhere?
