Wanda Alston Foundation begins culinary program
‘Slay and Sauté’ launched in Southeast D.C.
August 12, 2025
D.C.’s Wanda Alston Foundation, which provides housing and support services for homeless LGBTQ youth, on Aug. 11 officially launched a culinary program aimed at training LGBTQ youth with cooking skills for future employment.
With about 25 supporters looking on, Alston Foundation Executive Director Cesar Toledo described the program’s goals in a kitchen filled with cooking utensils and supplies of food in one of the buildings at the Wayne Place Apartments, a group of small apartment buildings on the 100 block of Wayne Place, S.E., where the Alston Foundation’s 20 youth clients currently live.
Located in the city’s Congress Heights neighborhood, Toledo said the LGBTQ youth clients occupy 10 apartments at the apartment complex. The apartment where Toledo and other Alston Foundation officials hosted visitors on Aug. 11 had been converted into office space, with the kitchen set up for the culinary training.
“They began the lessons today, making smoothies, and air frying chicken wings,” he told the Washington Blade.
Toledo reminded the visitors that the Alston Foundation, founded in 2008, is among the organizations working on addressing homelessness among LGBTQ youth, who he noted make up 40 percent of the homeless youth in D.C. according to studies.
“It’s a national crisis. And we see it firsthand here in the District of Columbia,” he told the gathering. “So, I’m happy to report that after today, we’ve raised over 60 percent of our goal,” he said, in referring to the fundraising effort for the Alston Foundation’s strategic plan, which he said has been named Queer Legacy, Bold Future.
Toledo said $17,500 had been raised so far, with the D.C. Front Runners Pride Run 5K Foundation, an LGBTQ sports organization, donating $16,000. He said the remaining $1,500 was donated by Wegmans.
Among other things, the funds have been used to purchase for use by the Alston Foundation youth residents “air fryers, rice cookers, smoothie blenders, healthy food, and condiments,” Toledo said in an earlier statement.
Among those attending the Aug. 11 gathering and expressing support for the program were Japer Bowles, director of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs; Chris Holland, community engagement and communications manager for Wegmans; Belinda Pearson, operations manager for the Alston Foundation; David Perruzza, owner of the D.C. LGBTQ bars Pitchers and League of Her Own; and Max Finland, property manager for the Wayne Place Apartments.
“This is a great opportunity for a program, and I love the ingenuity of it and its direct results for our residents who need skills and need to feed themselves,” Bowles said. “So, this is really cool.”
Read more in the Washington Blade here.
