Sarah started cooking at a young age for her family and learned that good food nurtures laughter and love.   Sarah’s passion has always been preparing delicious food and gathering people around the family table to enjoy life, love and community.  In 2015 Sarah founded Sarah’s Kitchen and quickly realized she’d found her life’s work.   Sarah also has a passion for helping others who are struggling, so one day she reached out to a grieving woman offering her love, kindness, and a quiche.  One quiche, made with love and given to a person in need, started a movement and Sacramento Kindness Campaign was born.

Sarah, Jill, Carlos, Joe and Donesha are five of the founding members of the kitchen staff in Sarah’s Kitchen.  Their stories are those of family, homelessness, obstacles, hope, perseverance, tribulations, triumph and bountiful new beginnings.   We are blessed to share time together in Sarah’s Kindness Kitchen and together and prepare and serve meals made with love.

Melanie likes to drink coffee and spends a lot of time in front of her computer…she does what she can to help the team.   You won’t see her in the kitchen anytime soon, but you will definitely see her filling her neighbor’s cup in the Mentoring Center or a local community event.

Matthew Stauss
Self-educated chef of nearly 26 years, Matthew started as a dishwasher at age 15. Within months he became a line cook and never looked back. Matthew has cooked for some of the finest restaurants in the Sacramento area. He has been involved in the opening of at least 8 new restaurants including Plates cafe and most recently Woodlake Tavern. While opening Plates cafe Matthew was the Executive Chef of St. John’s Shelter for Women and Children where he was responsible for feeding 115 Women and their children three times daily, on the smallest budget imaginable. During his short opening involvement with Plates Cafe he built on a culinary training model he’d used at the women’s shelter to help build up or introduce culinary arts to beginners helping them gain a leg up when ready to re-enter the work force. Matthew is incredibly enthusiastic about The Sacramento Kindness Kitchen and its base mission to aid refugee families and recently homeless new mothers through donation, job readiness and the sale of Sarah’s Kitchen meal subscriptions.