Kitchens for Good in Pacific Beach fuels dreams

If you have been to Pacific Beach, you have more than likely been to Garnet Avenue — the highly-trafficked, palm tree-lined main vein to get from the freeway to the beach, home to coffee shops, like Better Buzz Coffee, bars, like Mavericks Beach Club, and eateries, like The Friendly.

However, one block south of Garnet Avenue on Hornblend Street sits a large brown and green building with brightly-painted fruits and vegetables on its exterior. Some people who are familiar with it told NBC 7 they refer to it as a “hidden gem.”

“You can always find what you’re looking for,” said Laura Thorpe, a Pacific Beach resident. “You can come and look over here and find a treasure.”

It is called Kitchens for Good Shop. People are able to donate “preloved” items, as the team says, seven days a week at the store. Then, the items are cleaned, organized and priced. Once they are ready to be sold, they join the nearly 17,000 other items available for sale on the shop’s floor.

“Shoppers can save half-off the price that’s already half-off the price it might have been at Target,” said Mary Scafidi, the operations manager at Kitchens for Good Shop.

It is those discounted prices that shoppers like D’ona Brickford depend on.

“I was able to start my business debt-free because of Kitchens for Good, and I know that otherwise, I would not have been able to do that,” Brickford said.

Brickford is the proud owner and head chef of Mama Green’s, a newly-opened microenterprise home kitchen operation in San Diego. It is named after her grandmother, Earlene Green. She spent months visiting Kitchens for Good Shop to try to buy all of the kitchenware she needed.

“I remember times when she would go, ’I really want to get that, too, but I have to wait.’ You know, little by little, she just collected everything,” said Scafidi, who built a relationship with Brickford over the span of her visits.

On top of the shop being a place with great deals, it is also helping to fund a great cause.

“Any revenue that we generate here through selling these donated goods goes back to our apprenticeship program,” said Scafidi.

Kitchens for Good is a nonprofit that helps fund and offer a tuition-free, state-certified apprenticeship program based in San Diego that connects people who have some kind of a barrier to employment learn the skills they need to pursue a job in the culinary and hospitality industries. According to Scafidi, approximately 500 people have completed their program.

“It’s definitely life-changing for people,” said Scafidi.

Larry Brazley is one of the people who have gone through the apprenticeship program successfully. He and his siblings were raised primarily by their mother in Chicago. He remembers having to often cook and clean to help her take care of his siblings. Eventually, he joined the military and is now a veteran who is now able to pursue his passion for cooking.

“Every one of the other schools was going to charge me millions of dollars and this was much more cost-effective for me,” said Brazley.

He added that he works at a bakery and sells homemade vanilla extracts at farmer’s markets.

“I am incredibly enthused that they like something that I made, you know,” said Brazley. “I love when people enjoy what I do.”

Kitchens for Good apprentices like Brazley are accepted multiple times each year. To be considered, you must fill out an online form. Then, once selected, there are 10 weeks of training followed by 10-12 months of paid, on-the-job training.

“I always say this is the only job I’ve ever had where I cry almost every day about something, and it’s not bad tears,” said Scafidi. “It’s just those tears that you’re seeing these beautiful moments happen.”

For more information on the organization, click here.