Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma

PROJECT PURPOSE

The Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma?s Culinary Center, where the Culinary Trade Program is housed, functions as a full-time production kitchen performing a wide variety of tasks. Meals are mostly prepared from scratch utilizing some donated but primarily purchased food for uniform skills training. Food goes to recipients through child-centered programs which provide meals to students in low-income neighborhoods when school is out of session, the summer meals program, special school programs, and senior meal programming. Expanding to a 12,500 square foot Culinary Center will increase our overall goal capacity to 40,000 meals per week from 11,000. This design will allow us to grow summer and after-school meal programs throughout the region, increase our ability to prepare meals served through other feeding programs in the community, and facilitate the Culinary Trade Program (CTP). The CTP consists of 16-week classes that teach basic life skills in addition to work training. Students will receive comprehensive basic culinary skills, along with coaching on workplace teamwork and professionalism. Resume assistance and contacts within the restaurant industry will guide participants with a path to gainful employment and a potential career track. Pay incentives enable economically challenged students to complete their course of training.

EVIDENCE

The restaurant/foodservice industry continues to be negatively impacted by the pandemic in several areas, but staffing shortages are a major factor in success or failure. Using previous experience with a Culinary Trade Program, the Food Bank strategically planned the program to lead to successful outcomes including improved life skills and job skills so that participants who complete the program can enter the foodservice workforce.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

CFBEO?s service area was dramatically impacted by COVID-19 with people facing food-insecurity reaching an all-time high. Our pantries saw an average increase of 136% more households accessing food assistance programs than before the pandemic. According to Feeding America, 20 of the 24 counties served by CFBEO contain a higher-than-average percentage of people who fall below the SNAP threshold of 130% poverty. The purpose of the Culinary Trade Program is twofold: provide job training and life skills development for Oklahomans who have lost jobs because of the pandemics and provide meals for food-insecure Oklahomans in our area. The facility enhancement will allow CTP participants to prepare 8,000 ? 10,000 meals a day.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

Success is determined by participant ability to progress through a series of skills, beginning with obtaining a food handler?s permit, knife skills, cooking methods, food safety managers certificate concluding with resume writing and interview training. Data will be collected in the following three areas: number of meals prepared by CTP participants and distributed from the Culinary Center; number and percent of students entering the program and graduating from the program; and number and percent of students who found work upon exiting CTP

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma