Education Prepares Unemployed for Meaningful Work in Food Service
WHAT: Graduation Day of the 61st class of Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s Culinary Job Training Program (CJTP). With friends and family present, eight students will receive their certificates of completion in what is always an emotional and triumphant ceremony, but only after their final test: preparing food for the graduation luncheon! For graduation, the students can invite anyone they’d like to support them, and many share emotional moments with family and friends recalling the journey they took to be standing there holding that certificate.
Under the tutelage of professional Chefs Terri Hutter and Khaleel Faheemud-Deen, students learn knife skills and cooking terminology. Over 11 weeks, they receive intensive hands-on cooking experience in making stocks, sauces, soups, salads, yeast bread, and quickbreads. Students are certified in ServSafe food safety and sanitation practices, and coached in professional work habits. CJTP students hone their life skills as well, working with social worker Sharon Mitchell on how to get along with co-workers, balance life outside the kitchen, and manage stress. Additionally, students participate in a sexual harassment seminar with InterAct and a basic nutrition course.
WHEN: Friday Dec. 14, 2012 12:00p-1:30p
WHERE: Inter-Faith Food Shuttle’s commercial kitchen. 1001 Blair Drive, Raleigh, NC 27603
WHY: Inter-Faith Food Shuttle works with human services agencies to recruit unemployed and underemployed individuals with severe life challenges to provide them with the training and resources necessary for a steady career in food service and self-sufficiency. Believing that all of them deserve an opportunity to create better lives for themselves and their families, job coach Sue Jones works with students to find and maintain employment. Consistently over 70% of the Culinary Job Training Program graduates are employed eighteen months after graduation at places like Centerplate at the Raleigh Convention Center, university dining halls, hospitals, and other local cafeterias and restaurants.
During their time at the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, students help feed their community, converting thousands of pounds of food from a variety of food donors into nutritious, well-balanced meals, which are then delivered to local soup kitchens, shelters, and children’s programs that feed those in need. CJTP students reduce food waste by taking donated fresh produce into our commercial kitchen, cooking it into nutritious meals, and blast freezing it so that food with a limited shelf life will be available months later.
Inter-Faith Food Shuttle pioneers innovative, transformative solutions designed to end hunger in our community. www.FoodShuttle.org Contact: Cindy Sink 919-413-1470 Cindy@FoodShuttle.org