California · Nonprofit
STRONG FOODLA KITCHEN
STRONG FOODLA KITCHEN (California) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,442,478 to it, the largest being AARP FOUNDATION ($450,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2018
- $1.6M
- Funders on record
- 36
- Grants received
- $1.4M
- Net assets
- $580k
What Strong Foodla Kitchen does
Mission
The mission of l.a. Kitchen is to reclaim healthy, local food that would otherwise go to waste, and use it to empower, nourish, and engage the community. L.a. Kitchen operates three programs to achieve this goal. Empower l.a. Is a 15-week intergenerational culinary job-training program that empowers emancipated foster youth and older adults transitioning out of incarceration to thrive in careers in the food service industry. Impact l.a. Works directly with local farmers and wholesale companies to collect fruits and vegetables that are cosmetically unsalable, recruits thousands of angelinos to transform these raw fruits and vegetables into nutritious meals and snacks and distributes the food products to social service agencies that serve los angeles' low-income and aging populations. In addition, strong food, a social enterprise business, hires graduates of empower l.a. And uses purchased foods to create healthy meals and products for contracts, wholesale and retail sales.
As stated on its FY2018 Form 990.
Program
During 2017, l.a. Kitchen was able to facilitate culinary job training program for 80 transition age foster youth, formerly incarcerated adults and recently housed individuals, recover 432,650 pounds of produce that would otherwise be thrown away, engaged with 5,200 volunteers and prepared 136,000 healthy meals. L.a. Kitchen partnered with 20 community partners for the distribution of meals, snacks and fresh cut produce.
The first program described on its most recent Form 990, which lists programs largest first by expense.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2017 to 2018, from $4.7M to $2.8M (−40%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 2 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2019: the base narrowed from 21 funders to 1 funder, grant income fell $906k → $25k.
5 of 36 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 25% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of STRONG FOODLA KITCHEN’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 36 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
STRONG FOODLA KITCHEN has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 31% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
63% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund STRONG FOODLA KITCHEN.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 24% · 2019 100% — growing more concentrated.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Where its funders are
STRONG FOODLA KITCHEN draws 52% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 8 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $365k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Organizations like STRONG FOODLA KITCHEN
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for STRONG FOODLA KITCHEN: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds STRONG FOODLA KITCHEN?
- STRONG FOODLA KITCHEN (California) receives grants from 36 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,442,478 to it, the largest being AARP FOUNDATION ($450,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does STRONG FOODLA KITCHEN have?
- IRS filings report 36 organizations giving $1,442,478 in grants to STRONG FOODLA KITCHEN, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of STRONG FOODLA KITCHEN?
- AARP FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $450,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like STRONG FOODLA KITCHEN find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Strong Foodla Kitchen →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2018 (financials across 2017–2018), and the filings of 36 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing