For people rebuilding their lives after incarceration, homelessness, substance use, or other major disruptions, finding a job is often only the first hurdle. The quality of that job matters too. Stable hours, supportive supervision, opportunities to advance, and wages that support basic needs can determine whether employment becomes a lasting pathway forward.
Kitchens for Good is working to create those pathways in San Diego.
The social enterprise combines culinary and hospitality training with employment opportunities, temporary staffing services, and pre-owned retail sales. Through its programs and businesses, Kitchens for Good helps people facing significant barriers to employment gain practical skills, work experience, and connections to the labor market.
As the organization grew, however, it needed flexible capital that understood both its business model and its social mission.
Capital designed for a social enterprise
The REDF Impact Investing Fund, or RIIF, is a CNote Fixed Income investee that provides financing and technical assistance to employment-focused social enterprises. Rather than evaluating these organizations solely as traditional businesses or nonprofits, RIIF works to understand how commercial activity and social impact reinforce one another.
RIIF first provided Kitchens for Good with a $500,000 line of credit in June 2023. The financing gave the organization additional working capital to support its operations and establish a stronger foundation for growth.
As Kitchens for Good expanded, RIIF deepened the relationship, approving a $1 million line of credit, doubling the size of the original facility. The increased financing gave Kitchens for Good the financial capacity to secure and carry out a major fee-for-service contract with San Diego County.
For a growing social enterprise, that type of working capital can be critical. Organizations may need to hire staff, cover payroll, purchase supplies, or expand operations before revenue from a new contract is received. A flexible line of credit can help bridge that timing gap and allow an organization to pursue opportunities that might otherwise remain out of reach.
Rewarding the creation of quality jobs
The new financing also introduced an innovative feature: RIIF’s Job Quality Pricing model.
RIIF evaluated Kitchens for Good using its Quality Job Offerings Assessment, which examines the employment experience an organization provides. Based on Kitchens for Good’s rating, RIIF reduced the interest rate on the line of credit by 1.25 percentage points, resulting in a 4.75% rate.
The structure directly connects the cost of capital with job quality. Instead of measuring success only by the number of people employed, the model encourages borrowers to consider whether those jobs provide the stability, support, and opportunity workers need to succeed over time.
For Kitchens for Good, the lower rate reduced the cost of financing while recognizing the organization’s investment in its workforce. For RIIF, it created a practical way to embed impact incentives into the terms of a loan.
Building a platform for continued growth
At the time the expanded credit facility was approved, Kitchens for Good projected that it would employ 75 people from its target population by mid-2025 and increase that number to 90 by 2027.
The partnership also extends beyond financing. RIIF provides access to technical assistance, relationships, and a network of organizations working to advance employment opportunities for people who are frequently excluded from the traditional labor market.
Jennifer Gilmore, CEO of Kitchens for Good, described the value of becoming part of that broader community:
“Through REDF & RIIF we became part of something larger, part of a movement… it’s worth weighing the decision with the TA (Technical Assistance) and understanding of how nonprofits work, as well as the relationships that come along with RIIF’s lending program.”
The relationship between RIIF and Kitchens for Good illustrates what flexible impact investing can make possible. Capital helped the organization pursue a major contract and prepare for a new phase of growth. Technical assistance and relationships provided support beyond the loan itself. An interest-rate incentive made the quality of the jobs being created part of the financing structure.
Together, those elements are helping Kitchens for Good build more than employment opportunities. They are supporting pathways through which people can develop skills, establish stability, and move toward lasting economic opportunity.
