Company Using Ex-Offender Labor Prepares Meals for DC Schools

A nonprofit that helps ex-offenders and the homeless re-enter the job market is one of three companies preparing and serving food to students in the Washington, DC, Public Schools, reports the local Fox 5 TV station. DC Central Kitchen prepares the food at one middle school kitchen and satellites it to six other school sites in the city's northeast each day.

The mostly scratch cooked dishes, which take about of fifth of their produce needs from local farms, are a dramatic contrast from the frozen, prefabricated items the district had been buying previously. DC Central Kitchen's staff of down-and-outers is strictly scrutinized to weed out sex offenders toward minors as well as those with records of recent, frequent and/or "serious" crimes.