Hospitality Academy hosts Recipe for Success, helps student chefs

About a year and a half ago, Cincinnati State Technical and Community College partnered with the Freestore Foodbank to put together a program that would help individuals from Cincinnati’s urban core transition into a culinary career path. 
 
The two organizations worked together to create what is now called the Hospitality Academy of Cincinnati and is designed for graduates of the FSFB’s Cincinnati Cooks program.
 
“We were able to give students 30 credit hours for prior learning, and then we designed a Kitchen Management Certificate—a three-credit hour program that taught the students more complex things like food inventory management. So the students who graduate end up having 33 credit hours, which is nearly half an associates degree,” says Dennis Ulrich, Cincinnati State’s Vice President of Workforce Development.
 
After the completion of the first-year pilot program, 14 of the 20 participants graduated, four are now enrolled at Cincinnati State and one opened up a catering business.
 
“So it’s had wonderful actual results in terms of what they’ve been able to do in going through the program,” Ulrich says.
 
To continue producing results, however, the Hospitality Academy has to come up with the funding.
 
“It costs about $65,000 dollars to run a program, which means it’s free for the students, but that’s the cost,” Ulrich says.
 
In an effort to raise $125,000—enough to support two programs—the academy will host Recipe for Success, a fundraiser bringing together 20 restaurants that will serve food by the bite at Horseshoe Casino. During the event, student chefs will participate in a competition requiring them to create a meal out of ingredients provided to them in a mystery basket.
 
“We’re trying to become self-sufficient by putting together a food event,” Ulrich says. “There are a lot of folks who have struggled in their lives—who have had some difficulty legally or financially—and they’ve really stepped up to try to get a career pathway. They have an excess of 105 graduates of Cincinnati Cooks, so these are people from the inner city who’ve really struggled and who have a tremendous opportunity getting through the new program and getting another level of opportunity in their careers.”

Do Good: 

• Support the Hospitality Academy of Cincinnati by purchasing a ticket to attend Recipe for Success November 3 from 5 to 9 p.m. at Horseshoe Casino.

• Sponsor Recipe for Success. 

• Like Cincinnati State Workforce Development Center’s Facebook page, and spread the word about Recipe for Success by inviting your friends to the event.

By Brittany York

Brittany York is a professor of English composition at both the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.