Article: Culinary Program Offers a "Fresh Start" for People
Fresh Start is Gather's free culinary workforce training program designed to help build real skills, gain confidence, and launch a career in the food service industry.
The program aims to do more than teach knife skills; it seeks to revitalize lives.
"What we've seen when people enter our program [is] they come in a little broken. They need a little help," says deputy director Tania Marino. "Through the process ... they leave this program a different person. What we are seeing as we go through the program is that when they recognize that we believe them, that's what's taking them through all the obstacles, all of the challenges they are facing."
Leading the students through this transformation is chef instructor Timothy Barr, a 22-year veteran of the culinary and hospitality service industry. Barr leverages his decades of professional experience to give students a baseline foundation for a commercial kitchen career.
"To be able to help somebody — especially people that just need a chance," Barr says. "A lot of cases, that's what we have — people that just need somebody to believe in them and just give them a chance and teach them what they need to know in order to succeed."
The program operates full-time, beginning each morning with hands-on kitchen production before transitioning into classroom settings where students study core life skills.
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