Beyond the Business

Precooked turkey was a Thanksgiving “game-changer”

Established in 1989, DC Central Kitchen provides meals and culinary training programs throughout the year, as well as during Thanksgiving, making them a natural long-time partner near our Sterling, Virginia, headquarters. 

“One of the things we always say about DC Central Kitchen, one of our taglines is ‘we fight hunger differently,’” says Mike Curtin, Jr., CEO of DC Central Kitchen. “Because we look at food not as the end, but as a means, a tool that we use, as our mission statement says, ‘to strengthen bodies, empower minds, and build communities.’ And the work that we have done over the years with Cuisine Solutions is aimed at doing just that.”

Since 1999, we’ve been donating fully cooked turkey to support DC Central Kitchen’s Thanksgiving meals, a donation that supports the nonprofit’s vital work beyond the holiday.

“To cook literally thousands of turkeys in our ovens is a real strain on the capacity that we have. And so for years, Thanksgiving was really a really tough time for us,” says Mike Curtin, Jr., CEO of DC Central Kitchen. He describes Cuisine Solutions’ donation of fully cooked sous vide turkey breast as a “game-changer.”

“Instead of having to get, store, and then thaw thousands of whole turkeys, we were able to provide more meals for more people by using the sous vide turkey breasts than we could have ever possibly had done by cooking and carving whole turkeys,” Curtin says. “And what has happened…is Cuisine Solutions has been so generous around Thanksgiving time that much of the product they donate to us lasts for months into the next year.”

Support DC Central Kitchen.

Feeding firefighters at Ground Zero

Following the devastating terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers, New York chefs came together to contribute by feeding the people working on the rescue, recovery, and cleanup efforts at Ground Zero. One of those chefs, Daniel Boulud, asked his long-time friend Gerard Bertholon, Cuisine Solutions’ chief strategy officer, for food donations. Boulud was among a group of chefs serving meals off a boat near Ground Zero.

One particular detail stayed with Bertholon—in the wake of such tragedy, none of the food could be red. No tomato sauce, no medium rare meat. “I never thought about this part of cooking in those situations,” he says. In all, Cuisine Solutions provided more than 300,000 meals to the brave people at the front lines of this unthinkable tragedy.

Supporting DC Central Kitchen feed Hurricane Katrina evacuees

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina left an aftermath of more than $100 billion in damages as well as many tragic losses of life along the Gulf Coast. Cuisine Solutions founder and chairman Stanislas Vilgrain’s sister lived in Louisiana, so we leveraged his contacts to send food donations directly. Near our Virginia headquarters, we pitched in to help local nonprofit DC Central Kitchen as it was tasked with feeding evacuees housed at the D.C. Armory in Southeast DC.

“Cuisine Solutions was one of the groups that jumped in and helped us take on those thousands of new meals a day,” says Mike Curtin, Jr., CEO of DC Central Kitchen, “both prepping at the kitchen and then serving at the location itself.”

Vilgrain explains that we’re able to leverage our experience in large-scale banquets to help in these crisis situations.

“We served short ribs, stuffed chicken…things you would find in a restaurant,” says Gerard Bertholon, Cuisine Solutions’ chief strategy officer. “We were there to make them happy, not just to feed them.”

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Supporting wounded military members

In 2007, the Research & Development Associates For Military Food & Packaging Systems (R&DA) Military Assistance Program was established to support wounded military members and their families. That first year, we donated $58,000 to support the cause, and continued to partner with the organization for several years as a donor and as a supporter of its holiday meal.

Support R&DA Military Assistance Program.

White-tablecloth meals after Hurricane Sandy

After working with chef Daniel Boulud a decade earlier to feed first responders at Ground Zero, we pitched in again in the city of New York following Hurricane Sandy.

Gerard Bertholon, Cuisine Solutions’ chief strategy officer, traveled to New York with his wife and helped prepare meals at a local catering company. Cuisine Solutions donated a few pallets of food, and the team drove in the prepared meals and set up tables with white tablecloths. “We wanted to give them more than just a line buffet or something like that, where they were just eating,” Bertholon says. “It's just to show them that people are going out of their way to try to raise their spirit back.”

Food for First Night

Each year, the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, hosts a fall-semester kickoff event called First Night Celebration featuring a variety of food vendors. As of 2024, we had participated in nine First Night Celebrations, donating 2,087 pounds of food in total.

Food donations in the Arlington diocese

In Virginia, we partner with Catholic Charities on its St. Lucy Food Project, which addresses hunger throughout 21 counties. “They distribute to different food banks within the diocese,” says Wede Gibson, people chief and diversity officer at Cuisine Solutions, adding that stretches from Arlington as far as the Shenandoah Valley. “Their outreach is not only to Catholics, it is to anyone in need.”

Support Catholic Charities St. Lucy Food Project.

Support for World Central Kitchen’s efforts in Puerto Rico

Just a month after Hurricane Harvey devastated Texas, Hurricane Maria created more flooding in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. We once again partnered with José Andrés and World Central Kitchen, providing food donations to support the nonprofit’s work.

“We feed people around the world, and sometimes we'll be using his products and his technique to feed millions of people around the world in very complicated moments,” Andrés said of Gerard Bertholon, Cuisine Solutions’ chief strategy officer, at an event in 2024. “So you see, [with sous vide] you can have the best meal of your life, and the same technique allows us to feed the hungry in very different situations.”  

One of the key distinguishing factors, and part of what makes World Central Kitchen a natural partner for Cuisine Solutions, is the nonprofit’s collaboration with local chefs to actually prepare the food, so our lightly seasoned but fully cooked products are ready to be transformed into local cuisine. The issue with typical Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE) meals used in disaster relief, Bertholon explains, is that they are American-style flavors rather than preparations locals would be familiar with.

“Imagine an American having mashed potato and meatloaf, they will feel like, ‘Oh, my grandma used to make that. My mom used to make that.’ You feel comfort,” Bertholon says.

Support World Central Kitchen.

Aiding World Central Kitchen after Hurricane Harvey

In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey created catastrophic flooding in Texas. We donated two truckloads of food to support the work of the nonprofit World Central Kitchen, which partners with local chefs to prepare meals following disasters.

“World Central Kitchen started with a simple idea at home with my wife Patricia: when people are hungry, send in cooks. Not tomorrow, today,” notes chef José Andrés on the website for the nonprofit, which Andrés founded in 2010.

Our sous vide products are fully cooked and ready to eat, making them a convenient solution for areas in crisis where full kitchens aren’t readily available.

“What he's doing is trying to show that with a lot less money, we can feed a lot more people, a lot faster, and a lot better,” says Stanislas Vilgrain, founder and chairman of Cuisine Solutions, about Andrés.

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Supporting the admirable work of Martha’s Table

In 2018, we kicked off several years of corporate sponsorship and service support for Martha’s Table, a Washington, DC–based nonprofit established in 1980 that focuses on education, family, health, and the community.

Support Martha’s Table.

Giving back in San Antonio

We joined the community of San Antonio, Texas, in 2020 with the completion of our 315,000-square-foot plant, and began supporting the San Antonio Food Bank with in-kind donations to contribute to our new city.

“The San Antonio Food Bank is proud to partner with Cuisine Solutions,” Eric S. Cooper, the  president and CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank. “The need to support hard-working families and seniors on fixed incomes with healthy, nutritious food is growing across our region. This partnership is making a dent and we are very grateful for food donated.”  

Support the San Antonio Food Bank.

Supporting Virginia healthcare workers in the Covid-19 fight

Shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic arrived in the United States, Cuisine Solutions had just happened to order a million masks for our staff to use when safely preparing food. We donated 400,000 masks to hospitals caring for the sick near our Sterling, Virginia headquarters. The Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington shared their appreciation on social media: “Our thanks to Cuisine Solutions CEO Felipe Hasselmann…the generosity of our community is humbling.” 

Cuisine Solutions also showed our support for the brave healthcare workers through food, serving thousands of meals, ranging from sous vide egg bites to sandwiches, out of our food truck.

Cultivating culinary skills in Brazil

Diamantes na Cozinha, which translates to diamonds in the kitchen, trains Brazilians from the favelas on gastronomy to prepare them for higher-earning jobs. In 2024, we provided 50,000 Brazilian Real (roughly $8,750 in U.S. dollars) to sponsor a three-week course on gastronomy, food safety, and more. All in all, 33 students graduated from the class, out of 512 applicants.

For Felipe Hasselmann, CEO and president of Cuisine Solutions, the work supporting these hard-working Brazilians is personal, as he was born in Rio de Janeiro. “Those people, they need the day-to-day job, the day-to-day money to survive, and they still need to dedicate time for the classes,” Hasselmann says. “Some people were taking three or four different buses to be able to get to the class…there are some folks over there that were leaving home at 4:30am and coming back home at 11pm every day.”

Brazilian chef João Diamante is the founder and president of Diamantes na Cozinha, and was recognized with the Champions of Change Award as part of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024. “The partnership with Cuisine Solutions has given Diamantes na Cozinha a greater reach and international visibility, bringing more credibility to the national market and enabling us to impact more people,” Diamante says.

A convoy of food aid to Ukrainian refugees

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022, Cuisine Solutions founder and chairman Stanislas Vilgrain organized a massive, multi-day and many-mile aid effort to Ukrainian refugees. More than a dozen Cuisine Solutions employees volunteered to help.

From our plant in Louviers, France, we drove semi-trailers of food thousands of miles across Europe to Warsaw, Poland. “We drove 23 hours non-stop from France to Poland,” says Gerard Bertholon, Cuisine Solutions chief strategy officer. Black Sheep Lyon, a van rental company, provided vehicles for sleeping along the way.

Once we arrived in Poland, we leveraged World Central Kitchen’s network of kitchens to help prepare 10,000 daily meals for refugees. We also drove meals into Ukraine itself. 

“When they saw people coming from France and America, they said, wow, you came all the way here to help us out. We're not alone, the whole world is with us,” Bertholon says. “The most satisfying thing is giving hope back through food.” 

Overall, we donated more than 300 tons of food for Ukrainian refugees.

“That was a momentous experience for me,” Vilgrain says. “I think for the company, especially in Europe, it was also momentous, because we were able to get everybody to volunteer their time.”

Support World Central Kitchen.

Sous vide secrets for a good cause

Going strong since 2004, the Capital Food Fight is a massive event and fundraiser for our longstanding charitable partners DC Central Kitchen. 

“This is a space where 1,500 people are going to get together and taste food, sample cocktails and other beverages, and watch these rising-star local chefs battle out on stage with a secret ingredient that is revealed to the crowd just minutes before they begin their meal preparation or their plate preparation,” says Mike Curtin, Jr., CEO of DC Central Kitchen. “And Cuisine Solutions is right there as part of that whole thing.”

In both 2023 and 2024, we signed up to provide a “secret ingredient” for an on-stage contest. In 2023, Ed Reavis, chef at All Set Restaurant & Bar and owner of Money Muscle BBQ, won the round with his impressive dish using our poached octopus, and in 2024, Jova Urriola, regional executive chef at Colada Shop, won the round (and the contest) with her dish using our Berkshire Pork Belly. 

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Fueling a food pantry

We’re proud to be a Champion Donor to House of Mercy, a nonprofit food pantry and thrift store based in Manassas, Virginia.

During the holidays, we participate in its annual Christmas with Mercy toy drive. “Cuisine Solutions has been a valued partner with House of Mercy for over 10 years,” says Jessica Root, executive director at House of Mercy. “They have been our largest and most consistent donor for our Christmas with Mercy program, providing hundreds of children with new toys for Christmas.”

In identifying our food bank partners, Wede Gibson, people chief and diversity officer at Cuisine Solutions, has the challenge of finding organizations that can accept frozen food. Through her work with House of Mercy, Gibson learned that the food pantry couldn’t transport frozen food because the volunteers were making deliveries in their personal cars. So in 2023, we donated $50,000 for House of Mercy to purchase a delivery truck that can handle frozen food and help the nonprofit in their work to feed those in need. “The small change you can do, do it—rather than waiting to make big changes,” Gibson says.

“From what I have witnessed, it is not just a check coming from the corporate office, but the entire staff bands together to support House of Mercy and other charitable organizations,” says House of Mercy’s Root. “Their staff really embodies a culture of teamwork and giving back to the local community.”

Support House of Mercy.

Helping unhoused people in Rio de Janeiro

Brazilian organization Fraternity Without Borders works around the world to support unhoused people, and its Fraternidade na Rua (Fraternity in the Street) Project includes efforts in seven cities in the U.S. and four places in Brazil. The project’s Reference Shelter Center in Rio de Janeiro provides medical and dental care, food, and training for unhoused people. We donated $10,000 to support kitchen upgrades, new computers for a donor database, and meals.

Support Fraternity Without Borders.