Archive for March, 2018

Vote CKPgh for Google Impact Award

Thursday, March 8th, 2018

Community Kitchen Pittsburgh is a Hazelwood-based nonprofit that provides hands-on training to adults with barriers to employment to help them gain culinary skills and work experience as a bridge to stable employment and a living wage.  The organization has been awarded $50,000 from Google to further its work and is eligible for an additional $50,000 if it comes out tops in an online vote that ends on March 14.  Your click can help,

https://www.communitykitchenpittsburgh.org/award.

Why should you support Community Kitchen for this money?

So, there’s been a lot of stuff in the news lately about the opioid crisis.  I’d like you to think in specific terms about how a person could be affected by drug use or the drug trade–and how Community Kitchen can help change their prospects.

Imagine being the person who got hooked on opioids after a serious injury led a doctor to prescribing you some heavy duty pain killers.  Your supply runs out, one thing leads to another and next thing you know, you’re out of a job, out of a house, out of money and hooked on heroin in a scenario that you always imagined you’d be immune to.

Maybe you get nabbed on drug posession and you do a stint in jail.  We’ll just gloss over that year, because it really sucks.  But coming out isn’t the grand release that you thought it would be.  You’re stuck in a halfway house.  Nobody wants to give you a job because of your record and your gap in employment history.  You’re going to meetings and doing well.  But, when your stay at the halfway house comes due, your prospects for something better are not coming up the way you thought they’d be.  And, because your conviction was for drugs, you can’t even qualify for federal financial aid to go back to school to learn new skills.

Restaurants are booming in Pittsburgh, but culinary schools are not.  Restaurants have a shortage of workers.  This means that they are paying more to keep the workers they have and always trying to recruit new people to work their lines.  And, most restaurants will give people with convictions a second chance.  If only you had any culinary experience, maybe you could land one of these jobs.

That’s where Community Kitchen Pittsburgh comes in.  With scholarships for all students to offset all training costs, Community Kitchen provides students with a 12-week, intensive program of classes and support to gain the skills they need to land a skilled entry-level position as a prep cook.  They offer help to find housing and a job, and support services to help overcome the other barriers you face.  Students prepare school lunches, meals for homeless shelters, and food for catered events while they learn the ins and outs of working in a commercial kitchen.

All of this adds up to real support to help people who find themselves in situations they never imagined would happen to them, pick themselves up and move forward toward a brighter future.

Support Community Kitchen Pittsburgh with your vote today.  Click https://www.communitykitchenpittsburgh.org/award.