By Daily Press staff
The fire is up and the kettle is hot in St. Joseph Center’s culinary training program kitchen, where job training and practical food service skills are taught to homeless and low-income adults in the West Los Angeles area Recently Thomasine Howlett invited Stephen Perkins, executive chef at the Doubletree Hotel in Santa Monica, to come share his passion for the art of cooking with 12 of the training program’s budding chefs. Perkins, who became interested in the culinary arts when he helped his best friend’s father prepare gustatory delights for the Emmy presentations, has been cooking for 20 years and has worked in hotels and restaurants from San Francisco to Germany.
St. Joseph’s culinary program provides 10 weeks of training in food service and life skills, and places 76 percent of its graduates in jobs within 90 days after graduation. Established in 1991 and based on UCLA extension’s program in culinary arts, the St. Joseph Center Culinary training program has graduated hundreds of students who have started careers in the food service industry.
Students spend six weeks in classes learning about food preparation at the St. Joseph Center facility and four weeks in internships at local hospitals and restaurants. They receive daily hands-on training in food preparation, food handling, service, safety, and sanitation. The program also includes instruction in job search strategy, goal setting, and time management. Instruction and all course materials are provided to students at no cost.
In September 2002, more than 350 Los Angeles business owners, professionals, and community leaders were present as Ingrid Barnes, one of St. Joseph Center’s culinary students, received the “education award” at the Westside Shelter and Hunger Coalition’s Seventh Annual Breakfast and Awards Ceremony.
Then Santa Monica mayor, Michael Feinstein, congratulated Barnes for her progress from a life of homelessness to self-sufficiency. Barnes was able to obtain employment as a chef at Universal Studios where her recipe for chicken tarragon was put on the restaurant menu.
“The success of people like Ingrid is based on their willingness to make a change in their lives,” said Rhonda Meister, St. Joseph Center executive director. “And on a range of programs and services that provide the opportunities for that change.”
Haduia Greaves, a recent program graduate now doing a four-week internship at an elegant Beverly Hills restaurant, was recently offered a job opportunity by Wolfgang Puck.
Housed at St. Joseph’s Bread & Roses Café, which serves free hot meals Monday through Friday to the homeless, the program offers job training, life skills coaching, and logistical support, including resume preparation, mock interviews, and bus tokens for transportation.
Last year St. Joseph Center helped more than 7,500 homeless and working poor people by providing infant toddler development, childcare and parenting, case management, job training, after-school mentoring, and senior outreach.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 25, 2003. Read the original PDF.