Kitchen Cred is cooking up a new youth education program with the NFL Alumni Association

It’s the beginning of football season in America and Kitchen Cred founder Doug Barg is dusting off a familiar playbook.

The Poplar-based nonprofit aims to teach at-risk youth life skills through the culinary arts. The nonprofit also provides youth with opportunities to explore career pathways by bringing in professionals from various industries. The idea is to get professionals and at-risk youth together for a few hours of cooking, career conversation and camaraderie.

Oh, and eating. That part is important.

Kitchen Cred just scored its second-highest donation ever — $2,500 — and a high-profile partnership opportunity with the NFL Alumni Association (NFLAA)’s local chapter. The two organizations will collaborate on a pop-up series that will marry Kitchen Cred’s culinary-centric youth education programming with an exploration of careers in sports.

“This contribution represents what we hope will be only the first step in a long term partnership with the NFLAA Philly,” said Barg in a statement.  “We are already working on Career Bowls, an exciting pop-up introducing teens to a wide variety of career opportunities related to sports.”

The collaboration with NFLAA — six months in the works, according to Barg — is a big deal for Kitchen Cred. The nonprofit has been seeking opportunities to develop more career-related programs like Career Bowls through strategic partnerships.

Last year, Kitchen Cred hosted a one-off program called Tuck Into Tech at coworking space Venturef0rth that brought the tech community, celebrity chefs and at-risk youth together for an afternoon of crepes and career guidance. The new pop-up program with NFLAA will embrace the same career/cooking/camaraderie template.

If Kitchen Cred can continue to partner with organizations interested in replicating that model, we can expect to see more pop-up series like Tuck Into Tech and Career Bowls.