Shauna MacLeod works with Miguel Briere in the kitchen at Operation Come Home’s FoodWorks programs.
Operation Come Home launched its newest employment program at the beginning of February to provide local restaurants with skilled workers drawn from the ranks of homeless youth.
The new program on the centre’s roster is FoodWorks. Lasting 16 weeks, it will provide youth participants with hospitality training and work experience to give them an edge in the local job market. The program is broken up into a six-week training and certification period followed by a 10-week work placement.
FoodWorks was born out of the ashes of an earlier program called FoodMatters, which began in 2010 but was forced to stop when its funding ran out.
Elspeth McKay, Operation Come Home’s executive director, says FoodMatters “was really, really successful in terms of youth that were interested in the culinary and hospitality sector.”
The interest remained even after FoodMatters ended, so McKay applied for and received an annually renewable Telus Community grant of $15,000 to kick-start FoodWorks.
The grant was awarded by the Telus Ottawa Community Board, which, since 2009, has supported the centre with approximately $55,000 for its new programs.
Shannon Gorman, Telus’s national director of community affairs, says FoodWorks was chosen because Operation Come Home has proven that “they’re able to use our donations in a way that really adds value to our community.”
McKay says FoodWorks training prepares graduates for jobs in the hospitality sector.
Pieter Van den Weghe, general manager of Beckta Dining & Wine on Nepean Street, says the growth of the restaurant industry in Ottawa is going to make finding skilled workers a challenge.
He says FoodWorks is yet another resource “to connect people who are interested in developing their skill set with people who are interested in employing these individuals,” and that this is “a perfect combination.”
The program also addresses the fact that “a lot of at-risk and homeless youth do not have the required skill sets to be able to maintain a job,” McKay says.
To remedy this, FoodWorks will provide participants with training in food handling, first aid, Smart Serve and WHMIS, a national information system on how to properly handle hazardous workplace materials.
McKay says FoodWorks will produce 16 graduates annually and that each participant is subsidized during both training and work placement. McKay says acceptance into the program is determined largely by how motivated a candidate is and how badly they want to work in the hospitality industry.
With each participant being paid for the training, FoodWorks will be dependent on external funding to ensure its existence, much like its predecessor FoodMatters.
McKay says there are other sources likely to get on board if the Telus grant is not renewed, such as the Community Foundation of Ottawa.
Van den Weghe says businesses can’t forget that “we are still part of a community. If we can contribute in a positive way to people getting off the streets and finding a home to develop or even discover a passion, it’s a great thing.”
The biggest obstacle now facing FoodWorks is getting the work placements set up. McKay says Grounded Kitchen & Coffeehouse on Gloucester Street has already committed to taking on one of the graduates. She says the youth and staff have spoken with other potential employers and are hoping to have the placements locked in and ready to go by March 11.