KENNEWICK, Wash. – Columbia Industries, a mission-based organization committed to supporting and empowering individuals with disabilities and other challenges, has been awarded a $10,000 grant to support its Opportunity Kitchen food service training program. The Jacques Pépin Foundation (JPF), founded in 2016 by esteemed chef and author Jacques Pépin, supports free culinary and life skills training, through community-based organizations, that helps individuals detached from the workforce gain confidence, skills, and employment in food service.
“Thanks to the generosity of the Jacques Pépin Foundation, Columbia Industries’ Opportunity Kitchen will be able to purchase supplies and necessary support items for up to 10 students,” said Michael Novakovich, President and CEO of Columbia Industries. “Opportunity Kitchen is a no-cost program that is empowering individuals with barriers to employment and other life challenges to be the best version of themselves, which helps creates stronger families and more resilient communities. The beauty of the JPF grant is our ability to achieve our mission by enrolling and graduating more students and we are afforded the opportunity to do this through the richness of the culinary arts.”
Opportunity Kitchen offers a structured path out of underemployment to those with disabilities and those facing other employment barriers. Students in the program spend 12 weeks alongside an Executive Chef Instructor as they cover a comprehensive curriculum to prepare them for food service, hospitality or catering employment. They learn skills such as safe food handling, cooking techniques, weighing and measuring ingredients, following and creating recipes, catering and customer service, while also receiving program certification and a Food Handler Permit.
In addition to food service instruction, students take a variety of life skills classes designed to help them overcome obstacles and see their own self-worth and potential, as students in the program face challenges such as intellectual or physical disabilities, mental illness, domestic violence, substance abuse and homelessness or unstable housing.
Since its launch in 2019, Opportunity Kitchen has graduated 28 students from the training program. Graduates have gone on to work at local restaurants, bakeries, hotels and coffee shops.
