Author offers tips to Community Kitchen Project grads

BURLINGTON, Vt. -A feast at the Chittenden Food Shelf in Burlington Wednesday afternoon.Community members sampled tasty treats whipped up by students of the Community Kitchen Project, a joint effort by the Food Shelf and the Vermont Food Bank. The program teaches entry-level job skills to the unemployed and underemployed. Students get hands-on experience in a commercial kitchen while helping to prepare meals at the Food Shelf.

Graduates got tips from award-winning food author Molly Stevens.

“The first one is to be on time, the second is to be pleasant, the third one is to be as good as you can be at what you are doing. Yes, to have that skill, to have those basics. You don’t have to be the best one, the most creative, just bring the hard work to it,” Stevens said.

Four of the seven graduates from this session have already have found employment. Participants helped serve 31,000 meals this past year at the Emergency Food Shelf.