Seasoned chicken with Mexican rice, a tortilla, and beans with cheese filled a black lunch container — all hot and made from scratch.
This wasn’t just any cafeteria food. This food tasted as if it came from a good restaurant — or even home.
Welcome to the Blue Door Kitchen, a hub that prepares meals for the 3,500 children who go to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Tarrant County every day. The food is made from healthy and high-quality ingredients, not prepackaged processed food.
“Kids really need the food to taste good,” Daphne Stigliano, the organization’s CEO and president, said. “It needs to be something they look forward to eating because sometimes you can’t really sneak in the healthy stuff unless it does.”
Charles, a 14-year-old Boys & Girls Club member, is happy to be served a whole meal for dinner.
“We didn’t get that before,” he said.
The COVID-19 pandemic presented an opportunity to the Boys & Girls Clubs leadership: How could they serve their community more?
The organization started busing meals to kids across Tarrant and Denton counties. Now three vehicles make daily trips to 25 Boys & Girls Clubs locations.
But it didn’t stop there. The organization’s leaders figured they needed to focus on quality of the food, Stigliano said.
So they got to work. Crews gutted the kitchen at the Boys & Girls Clubs’ Nicholas & Louella Martin Branch. New smart stainless steel appliances were installed. The Blue Door Kitchen opened Aug. 24.
Major funders of the $2 million kitchen include Jackson-Shaw, a hospitality real estate development company, and the Amon G. Carter Foundation. The Ladies Auxiliary of Arlington contributed a commercial truck for meal deliveries to Boys & Girls Clubs branches in Arlington.
Ensuring that young people have access to fresh and healthy meals is especially important because the Blue Door Kitchen is in a food desert, Stigliano said.
“It’s all about helping a family really get to a better solution for how they can take care of their own kids, and the kitchen is just one example of that,” Stigliano said. “The kitchen is changing the way kids get access to nutritious food.”
Before the kitchen was built, food was often served cold. Students took notice of the change, Stigliano said.
“I like the new food program because it tastes good,” said Jaida, a 14-year-old member of the club.
The cooks faced an unexpected new challenge, too. Kids don’t recognize some of the meals they’re being served, said Randy Clift, director of food and beverage.
The club is now working on a project that includes where a dish originated as a part of the serving process.
The workforce program, Culinary Connection, is another way the kitchen teaches students about food. They learn about culinary careers and how to cook, Stigliano said.
“They love to make food,” Stigliano said. “More importantly, they love that confidence they get from being able to be proud of something they’ve created.”
Feeding kids isn’t new and neither is having a kitchen. But Stigliano wants residents to understand that her organization is thinking of unique and effective ways to serve the community, she said.
One tortilla at a time.
Keyla Holmes is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at keyla.holmes@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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