The employment outreach efforts of our Food Service Training Academy are paying off.
The Academy’s job placement rate is 81 percent for the classes it graduated in 2010-11, despite today’s difficult economy. The credit for this success goes to former graduates who serve as ambassadors for the Training Academy, to the food-service network of our staff and board of directors, and to Employment Outreach Coordinator Nicole Howard, an experienced chef and counselor who joined the Academy staff in 2009.
She reaches out to food service companies and restaurants of all sizes to provide information about the Training Academy and the availability of its graduates. She also helps graduates with résumé and cover-letter preparation, as well as with job-interview coaching.
The FoodBank’s Food Service Training Academy, a 14-week program, provides graduates with the skills and credentials needed to enter the food-service labor market. The Training Academy, run by Executive Chef Paul Kapner, is geared toward those who face obstacles in the job market, including former offenders on parole, former addicts in recovery and those who have never been employed. To ensure that graduates understand and can meet workplace expectations, the Academy has the same standards and rules as any professional kitchen.
The FoodBank is pleased to note that a book about our job-training program, called Cooking for Change: Tales from a Food Service Training Academy, was published this summer. In Cooking for Change, Author Doris Friedensohn and Photographer Steve Riskind put the reader in the kitchen with students and staff, giving them a close-up look at the struggles and triumphs that occur there.
The Training Academy is supported in part by generous grants from the Prudential Foundation, Bank of America Foundation, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, State Street Foundation, WalMart Foundation and ACE Bakery Limited.
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