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From the Shelter to the Kitchen: How Food Waste is Connecting a Community
In May, FreshPoint Raleigh began a new endeavor to reduce food waste in the warehouse and connect with our community.
We partnered with Wake Tech Community College and the South Wilmington Men’s Shelter in Raleigh to begin a culinary skills course.
This 3-week program paired 10 men at the shelter with a professional chef to learn about knife skills, food prep, basic cooking techniques, and recipe development. We collaborated by donating produce that had been taken out of inventory for quality, and would have otherwise been considered food waste.
On May 11, we were invited to attend the graduation brunch of the first group that completed the course. The students prepared the meal, and two announced that they had been offered and had accepted jobs working as line cooks. Since then, six more have gotten full-time jobs at various restaurants.
We’re excited to continue working with this program and helping to prepare new cooks with the job skills needed to enter the foodservice industry.
Images and content contributed by FreshPoint Raleigh; follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
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