Meet Steve Gostin of California Culinary Coalition

Today we’d like to introduce you to Steve Gostin.

Hi Steve, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
After a long career in hospitality and as a consultant, I decided to pivot and make some changes after the pandemic forced me to look at my career. My friend and former teacher/business partner and I founded California Culinary Coalition, a registered 501c3 non-profit helping to provide meals to those in need through our recovered food program and kitchen.

I also found myself transitioning into a little league manager for my son’s team. This woke a passion for me that has me now working on a new project, Orange Coast Baseball Group, a soon to be non-profit focused on working with youth athletes and promoting baseball training, of course, but also academics, community, personal growth, service and leadership. I’ve created the EnhancedAthlete360 program to provide young athletes with skills both on and off the field.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It has not been a smooth road at all! The pandemic wiped out hospitality and I was forced to close my consulting business soon after the onset of COVID. From there, it was one devastating obstacle after another. Somehow, we have made it through and with God’s help, we have been able to get to a point where we can focus on the future and build something new and different.

California Culinary Coalition has thrived and doing well, but we can always use more donations and volunteer assistance. We have some great partners who have helped us create over 120,000 meals in our first year alone. We are looking at opportunities where we can grow and have our own kitchen that will allow us to not only produce more meals but create classes to teach people about healthy cooking and eating, especially kids.

The food banks are sporadic with the options they provide. Many of them are amazing and do great work, but they are only able to provide what they have. We often have to purchase more to cover what we need to feed our clients which, as you can imagine for a new and small organization, is not easy with our limited income.

We are working on finding grants and donors and hope to have our first major fundraiser soon, but again, we are always looking for people and organizations to help.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
This non-profit changed our lives. I am an entrepreneur and have started several small companies that eventually closed. However, Cal Culinary is taking off and I’ve never been more proud. Chef Teresa and I built this from the ground up and I had never started a non-profit before so it’s been a bit of a challenge for me. However, it’s one that I value greatly.

We are a recovered food kitchen and provide meals for a transitional home in Santa Ana and for emergency shelter programs in Orange County. Our mission statement defines us; To cultivate and inspire community by feeding the soul and the mind. We not only provide food, we provide education.

As an adjunct professor with Santa Ana Community College School of Continuing Education, I was able to create curriculum for a new State of California-approved certificate programs in Line Cook and Baking & Pastry. These programs are about getting people the hands-on training and knowledge they need to get to work. Unlike culinary programs, they are designed to work the line in a commercial kitchen and understand how to use a knife, read recipes and understand how we do what we do in a restaurant. People don’t understand that it all relates to the bottom line of a business P&L.

We hold classes in our kitchen to train people to become line cooks and we hope to expand beyond to teach people, and families, how to cook clean and healthy meals at home with each other.

Teresa and I also revived our old catering company, OC Chef Concierge. This is a social enterprise to help benefit Cal Culinary. She’s an amazing chef and we offer a broad range of food options. We even have what I call a Personal Chefsperience where we come to your home and prepare the meal for you, serve you and cater to your friends and family for a complete personal chef experience. All this helps provide more meals for those in need.

There is so much about what we do that I am proud of and grateful for. It’s been a struggle for us but we know that what we are creating today is benefitting so many people. In our first year alone, we made over 100,000 meals and we hope to double this number, at least in year 2.

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
This is a tough question because as I get older and how the world has changed the past 2 and a half years, the way I see myself has also changed. My family and faith are most important, by far. Both have been challenged greatly during this time so I’m seeing life differently. I’m also now closer to 60 than 50, so I’m in a completely different mindset than I was in my 30’s and 40’s.

There is nothing more humbling than helping others in need. I’m not too proud to say that it was a tough go for us during the pandemic. So much happened within my family and with my business. The opportunity to create California Culinary Coalition and know that the work we do is helping thousands of people is humbling. It showed me just how much we have, even when we felt as if we had so little.

Our goal is to expand beyond OC and have kitchens and meal programs throughout the state. People don’t realize the impact food waste and insecurity have on our communities, especially with children. Most of us don’t worry about where our next meal comes from. So many kids in lower-income communities rely on their schools for 1 meal per day. This is why so many districts are expanding their food programs and looking into healthier options for the children.

I want to be able to help and provide to others who may not have as much as we do, especially the children. A big part of Orange Coast Baseball Group will be working with young athletes to help them develop off the field. We want to help kids see what it is like to serve and become leaders within the community. We want to be able to open doors for these kids in all areas and provide baseball scholarships to inner-city youth so they can experience the game like we play.

The goals for OC Baseball Group are to help young athletes find their path beyond the baseball field. I’ve spoken with many former professional ball players and many of them tell me the same thing; no one showed me how. Whether we were speaking about leadership skills or personal finances or business, their focus was always on baseball, so they didn’t learn. We are creating an environment beyond the diamond and helping athletes grow.

Hopefully, between both organizations, I can reach a few people along the way and help them in ways that others helped me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.californiaculinarycoalition.com
• Instagram: @CalCulinary
• Facebook: facebook.com/calculinarycoalition