Is Horton's Kids Still Open? Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) Update

Horton's Kids, a Washington, DC nonprofit that supports underserved children in the city's Ward 8, appeared on Restaurant: Impossible (Food Network) in a special "White House Edition" episode that aired June 13, 2012. Unlike most episodes, this was not a commercial restaurant rescue: First Lady Michelle Obama asked Chef Robert Irvine to take on the organization's cramped, under-equipped space, where children ate outside regardless of weather because there was no real dining room, storage was minimal, and a faulty oven limited what staff could cook for the after-school meal program in a neighborhood with few nearby food options. Irvine's team built the children a dining room, renovated the kitchen so staff could reliably cook full meals on site, and created a community garden so kids could grow and learn about the vegetables that would end up on their plates, tying the physical rebuild to Horton's Kids' broader mission of healthy eating and family support.

Horton's Kids has continued to operate in the years since, and the organization eventually outgrew the renovated space. According to Axios, Horton's Kids opened a larger headquarters called Horton's Hub in a former church near Fort Stanton Park in Southeast DC on February 3, 2023, adding a media lab, job-training resources, and mental-health support alongside its existing tutoring and meal programs. Axios reported the organization was then serving about 600 students and their families a year, having supported the community for more than three decades. The organization's own website continues to describe an active program at that Hunter Place SE address, and a Yelp listing under the Horton's Kids name shows activity updated as recently as February 2026, consistent with the nonprofit remaining in operation well beyond its 2012 television appearance, making it one of the more clearly ongoing success stories among the properties Robert Irvine and his team have renovated over the life of the show.