CHEFS Program Teaches the Homeless How to Cook

They say that if you give a man a fish, he eats for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime. Well the same is true for giving someone food-versus-teaching a person some skills in the kitchen. No one knows that fact better than Sandra Marilyn, Bill Taylor, and Sally Ray.

According to a recent story in the San Francisco Chronicle, Marilyn, Taylor, and Ray run San Francisco's CHEFS program, or "Conquering Homelessness through Employment in Food Service." The innovative initiative, which is run by the Episcopal Community Services of San Francisco, offers cooking courses and job placement opportunities to local homeless people. Once folks complete months of rigorous culinary lessons and a three-month internship at a local restaurant, CHEFS then helps place program graduates in food service jobs throughout the city. The program's proved successful in not only getting people off the streets, but in boosting culinary literacy.

For one student, 36-year-old Ray Camarena, CHEFS became a life-saver. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported, Camarena returned to the U.S. from Spain several years ago, and her husband was tragically murdered. Camarena then spent six years in a federal prison for conspiracy, winding up at a half-way house once she was released. The half-way house burned down, and Camarena moved into a trailer. It wasn't until she got accepted to the CHEFS program that things finally started looking up.

Camerena, along with her classmates, are now two months into the 38th session of CHEFS. Each session takes about 40 students, but typically only about 15-to-18 people complete the six-month program. Those who do finish typically find restaurant jobs at notable establishments like 1300 on Fillmore, Home, and Nopa — in some cases, these are the same restaurants where students intern.

Programs like this are so valuable to society not only because they help get folks off the street and into paying jobs, but because they address one of the biggest obstacles to the sustainable food movement — food access. As Change.org blogger Jean Stevens recently noted, Americans spend less than an hour a day preparing food and eat 31 percent more packaged foods than fresh foods. A lack of fresh, sustainable ingredients isn't the only thing preventing folks from eating healthy meals — a lack of knowledge on how to prepare these meals is also a huge, limiting factor to the sustainable food movement. Graduates of the CHEFS program may or may not decide to stay in the food services industry, but they'll remember those cooking lessons. Now that's a skill that can help folks stay off the streets and eat healthy for the rest of their lives.

Photo credit: ghahnroyal via Flickr