Investing in Breadwinners. Transforming Lives.
Hot Bread Kitchen’s mission is to create economic opportunity for women and gender-expansive people, immigrants, and people of color through job skills training, food entrepreneurship programs, and an ecosystem of support in New York City. We exist to uplift, empower, and support women, while working relentlessly by their sides to achieve their career ambitions.
Hot Bread Kitchen’s work builds on our 15-year history of providing support services, skills coaching, job placement and entrepreneurship programming as well as our vast connections and employer relationships that put workers and small businesses on a path to economic security and mobility.
We Create Breadwinners.
Hot Bread Kitchen programs and services include professional skills training and career programs, job placement, food entrepreneurship and social services support. We have a built-in network of high-quality employers ready to hire women from our programs. Our food entrepreneurship offerings help small business owners seed, start and scale their ventures. And our team helps women overcome obstacles to success outside the workplace—from financial planning to childcare.
Why we’re committed to this work
Immigrant women and people of color face disproportionate social and economic barriers to careers, livelihoods, and financial security. A childcare system in crisis, ongoing systemic racism, little or no safety net, and COVID-19 disproportionately impact Black, Latinx and AAPI frontline workers. The pandemic especially hurt workers in the food, culinary and hospitality industries, and put enormous stress on NYC’s small businesses. We now see even more clearly ways that food industry jobs can fall short for workers, the fragility of small food businesses, and the urgent need for an equitable recovery.
We’re deeply committed to our belief that the best way to help women and gender-expansive people, immigrants, and people of color on their path to economic mobility is to provide a flexible service model that centers individual needs, while working to champion systems-level change that can help all women rise.
Get to Know Us
Learn more about the committed team that shows up every day to create jobs, help women achieve economic mobility and create a more equitable food system. From our staff to our Board of Directors and committees, each individual brings unique value to our recipe for success.
Our Approach
We reach women and people of color directly while also working to break down the barriers that hold them back. We provide:
Economic Opportunity
Skill-building and resources to prepare women for careers and small business ownership
Community of Peers
Current program participants and alumni are members of Hot Bread Kitchen for as long as they desire support
Partnership-based Ecosystem of Support
Collaborative partnerships that extend our impact and and help women go even farther
Equitable Food Jobs
Quality jobs in New York City’s vibrant food industry that provide living wages, stable and predictable hours, advancement opportunities, safety and a sense of purpose and dignity
Our Journey and Our Impact
Since 2008, Hot Bread Kitchen has worked to create economic opportunity through careers in food. Our founder Jessamyn Waldman Rodriguez started Hot Bread Kitchen from her Brooklyn home kitchen, cooking and baking alongside immigrant women with dreams of a brighter future. As Hot Bread Kitchen has grown, this spirit—of high-touch, personalized support—continues to be central to everything we do.
Today, we’ve helped over 700 women and gender expansive people find careers and build agency, self-determination, and community. We’ve incubated 250 small food businesses. Our work has driven $100M in regional economic impact. And we have established ourselves as a powerful and influential voice demanding greater equity and opportunity in NYC’s culinary sector.
Our Members
We partner with women of color and immigrant women impacted by gender, racial, and socioeconomic inequality. Hot Bread Kitchen’s members include cisgender and transgender women. We are also committed to supporting those who identify beyond the gender binary, and welcome gender non-confirming and non-binary people into our program.
