David Robert Lambert

On June 9, 2012, the People-4-People Employment Assistance Program launched a Culinary Arts Job Training Program for unemployed persons seeking employment in the food service industry.  Students received instructions in food safety, practical kitchen skills, as well as job readiness training.

This pilot program was sponsored by seven Montgomery County churches (Immanuel’s Church, People’s Community Baptist Church, Lutheran Church of St. Andrew, Resurrection Baptist Church, Mount Jezreel Baptist Church in Silver Spring and Redeemer Lutheran Church, St. Paul Catholic Church in Damascus), and Christ Lutheran non-profit GGT in Bethesda provided the licensed kitchen space.

Chef Paul and Chef DaVid are managing partners of the Chef Master CDER Café in Silver Spring.  Their company, ChefMaster.org of Metro DC, was hired to provide the Culinary Arts Job Training.  Both chefs are Certified Instructors and Registered Proctors for the National Restaurant Association ServSafe® course.

Instruction was held on 3 Saturdays in June and 3 Saturdays in July at the Christ Lutheran non-profit Graceful Growing Together (GGT) licensed kitchen in Bethesda.  An additional evening of preparation for the graduation reception was held at the Chef Master CDER Café.

At the graduation ceremony held at the Lutheran Church of St. Andrew in Silver Spring, students showcased their new culinary skills for 77 friends, relatives and invited guests.

Several of the Culinary Arts Job Training students have passed the ServSafe® proctored examination.  Some have honed their skills by volunteering at the Chef Master CDER Café or for the Bethesda Cares Farm to Freezer program.  So far one student has taken a field trip to a commercial supplier where restaurants shop.

People-4-People Employment Assistance Program personnel will continue to work with and mentor students for a full year.

There’s no culture in the world that spends less on food and more on medicine than the United States. For the first time in history, our children’s generation is expected to have a shorter lifespan than our own.  The quality, taste and nutritional value of the food we eat has dropped sharply over the last fifty years.

If you are in the Washington, DC, Northern Virginia or Montgomery County, Maryland area, you are invited to come to Food Day 2011 for a local screening of the documentary film “Ingredients” co-sponsored by Bethesda Presbyterian, Church in Bethesda and Graceful Growing Together.  GGT is a non-profit community subsidiary of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church.

This local event for the first-ever national Food Day will be held on:

Monday, October 24, 7:00pm
Church in Bethesda
5033 Wilson Lane
Bethesda, MD 20814

Please RSVP if you plan on attending!

For more information, see
http://www.FoodDay.org and http://www.ingredientsfilm.com

Recently in a conversation with a church staff member, the topic of outreach to the community came up.  Last summer I helped update the Emergency Food, Shelter and Health Care Directory published by the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington.

This directory is published each year in partnership with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and the United Way of the National Capital Area.  The pocket-sized directory is available for the cost of postage.  It is also available online.  Go to the website listed below, click on “Emergency Directory” and then click on “Search it Online”.
http://www.ifcmw.org