News Article

(SPOKANE, Wash.) — Five underemployed adults will graduate from the Culinary Job Training program offered through the Campus Kitchen at Gonzaga University (CKGU) in a ceremony at 2 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 14 at Pandini’s in Cataldo Hall on campus.

The program, which graduated its first class one year ago, teaches unemployed or underemployed adults valuable culinary and life skills through work in the kitchen and classroom. Trainees take a food handlingcertification exam at the end of the course, and have job opportunities .

The Campus Kitchen at Gonzaga University started operations in August 2005 as a special partnership with Gonzaga , Sodexho, the campus food-service provider , and The Campus Kitchens Project. To date, the Campus Kitchen has rescued more than25,000 pounds of food, served more than 31,000 meals and engaged volunteers in more than5,000 hours of community service.

CKGU delivers between 350 and 500 meals per week to individuals served by 10 community-based agencie s . Its partner client agencies include Spokane Neighborhood Action Project (SNAP), GU’s Campus Kids mentoring program, YWCA, and the Spokane AIDS Network.

CKGU is part of a national hunger relief organization titled The Campus Kitchens Project, a student-driven campus initiative in which high school and college students r ecover unserved food from dining services, use school cafeterias to prepare meals, and deliver those meals to low-income youth, seniors, families, and community agencies. The mission of The Campus Kitchens Project is to strengthen bodies, empower minds, and build community.

The Life Skills topics in the curriculum include an introduction to business; expectation and goal-setting; conflict resolution; professionalism; interviewing skills and other matters. For more information, contact Rebecca Teichmann, coordinator of the Campus Kitchen at Gonzaga University, at (509) 323-6939 or via e-mail.