America's Second Harvest’s 32nd Community Kitchen Culinary Arts Class held a graduation ceremony at Richard Arnold Center for Adult Education on May 20th.

Congratulations to Melissa Alarcon, H. Jaymes Frazier, W. Ann Jackson, Tramaine King, Stacy Knox, Maria Mongrout, Raymond Nedd, Robert Northcutt, Tameka Shaw, and Joann Sheppard for their achievement.

Of these nine Community Kitchen graduates, four were ServSafe certified through the program, identifying them as having mastered a national food safety and handling course accredited by the American National Standards Institute and the Conference for Food Protection.

Community Kitchen is an initiative of America's Second Harvest to address job training needs in the area. Community Kitchen offers a concise, eighteen week course, during which students learn life-skills along with culinary skills.

They spend nine weeks in the classroom, preparing to obtain a GED if they do not have one, learning culinary theory and safety, and acquiring practical skills such as budgeting, resume writing and job interviewing. They spend another nine weeks in the kitchen for hands-on culinary experience.

The food they prepare on a daily basis at the Community Kitchen provides meals to local children who are at risk for hunger.

The program cites a 55% increase in enrollment for the first quarter of 2009 compared to same time frame for 2008.

Last year, the program trained 49 local students job skills giving them the ability to earn a living wage.

This was a 61% increase over the number of students anticipated to complete the course.