OUR FOUNDER

Dion Cucuta was born and raised in Harlem, NYC during the Heroin uprise & epidemic. He escaped the uprising and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1977, and served until 1983. It was in the Marine Corps that he became a cook, and his teamwork skills, leadership, and deft establishment of relationships grew substantially during his time in active service.Upon returning to Bergen County, Dion began several after-school programs to work with and teach life skills to underprivileged youth, through programs such as his middle school “Culinary Cadets” class and the mentorship programs that he leads with his wife, Stephanie Taylor-Cucuta. Chef Dion has provided answers and hope to so many young people through his roles of football coach, culinary instructor, and mentor, and he’s unwaveringly devoted to helping the students, gangs, and athletes that he’s worked with. He describes helping people as “a core value that courses through his veins,” and his extraordinary community improvement efforts clearly echo this sentiment.Dion and his wife Stephanie founded DCVP in 2010, and the organization has grown exponentially in the last ten years. In March of 2020, when the pandemic took over the entire world, Chef Dion went ahead full throttle with a weekly food distribution program. He spoke to the Table To Table food rescue organization,many worship houses and several local nonprofts to create the Tabel to Table Tuesdays food distribution. The program is currently servicing 3,000 famalies weekly and supporting the 3rd & 4th regions in Bergen Country