Robert Egger founded the DC Central Kitchen in 1989, a nationally recognized "community kitchen" that collects leftover food from hospitality businesses and farms, and uses it to fuel a culinary arts job training program and provide meals to local service agencies. He is also the founder of Campus Kitchens Project, CForward and the L.A. Kitchen, started in 2013. Egger also serves on the boards of the Los Angeles Food Policy Council, Kitchens for Good, #Hashtag Lunchbag, ROSIES Foundation, The Philanthropic Collaborative, and Chef Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen.
L.A. Weekly named Robert one of their 2016 People of the Year, and in 2015, he was given the Conscious Leader of the Year award by Conscious Capitalism. He was included in The NonProfit Times' list of the "50 Most Powerful and Influential" nonprofit leaders from 2006 to 2009. He was the recipient of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington's 2007 "Lifetime Achievement" award and the 2004 James Beard Foundation "Humanitarian of the Year" award.
Egger's book on the nonprofit sector, Begging for Change: The Dollars and Sense of Making Nonprofits Responsive, Efficient and Rewarding For All, was published in 2004 by HarperCollins,