Misfit Juicery is not a juice company, but they are fighting food waste one cold-pressed juice at a time – and they're doing it in DC. We'll let you read more about them on their website, but even if you haven't had a chance to try their product, you might remember them as co-hosts of last year's hEArT fundraiser at the Capital Area Food Bank.

Misfit's ongoing blog series, "Meet the Misfits," introduces men and women from across the country who advocate for food equity + sustainability, and against food waste; we loved the most recent installment – featuring chefs Emily Hagel and Ciji Wagner of Miriam's Kitchen – to the point that we felt it was a MUST SHARE with the #aCreativeDC community. Catch a slice of the interview below, and head to the Misfit JOURNAL for the rest.

Misfit: How would you describe the mission of Miriam’s Kitchen in your own words?

Ciji: The overall mission is to end chronic homelessness in D.C.  We do that via the food, which gets the guests into the door. The idea is that if you build relationships, and we believe that building relationships happens with food, then people will trust you enough to get the help they need, the support they need to really make the ongoing changes they need to their life.

Emily: I think the way that we hold ourselves to an extremely high standard out of respect for the art of cooking but also out of the understanding that if we are preparing a meal that someone in a paying-customer kind of restaurant would want to pay for, we feel like we have succeeded.  So we want to make sure that while our food makes our guests feel safe and at home, in the way that they don’t always feel safe and don’t have a home, here at Miriam’s Kitchen we’re able to make people feel good about themselves and have some security and stability in their lives through that good meal.

In terms of the bar that we set for ourselves and for our volunteers, and the professionalism that we run this kitchen with, that sets us aside I think, we run a restaurant for people who don’t pay within the mission of ending chronic homelessness. Our high standard for food, food preparation and how we run our kitchen, speaks through the impact of our food and how we care for our guests.

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photos + interview excerpt courtesy Misfit Juicery