Applications for Paso Robles school district food apprenticeship open
The Chef Ann Foundation ‘s California Healthy School Food Pathway Pre-Apprenticeship applications are now open. Photo from website.
Program led by nonprofit Chef Ann Foundation
– The Paso Robles Joint Unified School District (PRJUSD) has joined other Central Coast school districts by providing spots in the California Healthy School Food Pathway Pre-Apprenticeship program, run by the Chef Ann Foundation, this fall. Applications are open until August 26.
“The Chef Ann Foundation’s Healthy School Food Pathway Pre-Apprenticeship program is a pioneering workforce development initiative designed to help school food programs meet the increased demand for healthy school meals in California and address the critical workforce gaps and high vacancy rates in the school food sector. Through promoting equitable culinary career pathways and providing comprehensive paid training, the Healthy School Food Pathway Pre-Apprenticeship helps ensure that California’s school meal programs will have the skilled workforce needed to deliver nutritious, scratch-cooked meals, ultimately enhancing children’s health and learning outcomes,” said Chef Ann Foundation senior director of California Workforce Programs Emily Gallivan.
The program runs from Oct. 21 to Dec. 13 at the Paso Robles Culinary Arts Academy. Participants will be paid for their training, which includes hands-on and online classes, and will then be able to move into the nine-month long, paid apprenticeship program. The aim of the Chef Ann Foundation’s Pre-Apprenticeship program is to supply participants with the skills needed to make the free school meals scratch-cooked and healthy.
Members of the California Healthy School Food Pathway Pre-Apprenticeship, through the Chef Ann Foundation, at the Atascadero Unified School District.
“Typically when people hear the word healthy, they think it doesn’t taste good, but we’re really trying to change that. We’re also trying to change the stigma that’s associated with school meals and your typical mystery meat type product…having a little bit more hands on deck enables us to be able to do more from scratch,” said PRJUSD food service director Jessie Wesch.
Examples of ingredients obtained from local sources for PRJUSD meals include pasta from Templeton-based Etto Pasta, and grass-fed beef from Cayucos, which can be used to make hamburger patties, bolognese, and more. Over 60% of ingredients come from local farms for the food service program with the assistance of state and county government programs and the Chef Ann Foundation.
“I’m here to make changes and I wouldn’t put something on the menu that I don’t feel comfortable giving to my kids…I love our community and I hope to create more connections between families and that families can rely on their school meals to feed their kids,” said Wesch, adding that “I hope that parents are excited for their kids to eat school meals…we just have so many different varieties of fruits and vegetables and entrees [and we’re] trying to expose students to a plethora of different things to eat and putting different cultures into our menus.”
Chili made by members of the California Healthy School Food Pathway Pre-Apprenticeship at the Atascadero Unified School District, through the Chef Ann Foundation.
Other school districts that have implemented this program include Atascadero, San Miguel and Templeton. In previous years, four people were part of the Pre-Apprenticeship program with a maximum of five spots for future years.
“The movement to transform school nutrition programs to focus on more scratch cooking has taken off this school year, and food service directors are welcoming community members into their space to be part of this change by exploring a career in healthy school food through the Healthy School Food Pathway Pre-Apprenticeship,” Gallivan said.
For more information about and the application for the California Healthy School Food Pathway Pre-Apprenticeship program, visit their website here.
