Caroline’s Kitchen
Caroline’s Kitchen is Gateway Center’s food service program and addresses one of our 5 Key to Success, Job Skills Training & Placement. With its name inspired by our inaugural Board Chair’s spouse, Caroline’s Kitchen is designed to serve as one of Gateway Center’s solutions to homelessness, hunger, and creation of career paths for our guests. Recognizing that people in poverty often have experienced generational poverty, Caroline’s Kitchen provides an opportunity to learn the necessary life and culinary skills that can aid them in breaking this cycle.
About Caroline’s Kitchen
With its name inspired by our inaugural Board Chair’s spouse, Caroline’s Kitchen is designed to serve as one of Gateway Center’s solutions to homelessness, hunger, and creation of career paths for our guests. Recognizing that people in poverty often have experienced generational poverty, Caroline’s Kitchen provides an opportunity to learn the necessary life and culinary skills that can aid them in breaking this cycle.
Caroline’s Kitchen provides more than just meals for our guests. Participation in this program provides our guests the tools, coaching and support they need to successfully re-enter the workforce. This new career opportunity will increase our guests’ ability to secure sustainable employment and obtain stable housing.
Meal Service
Caroline’s Kitchen provides over 1,000 meals per day to guests enrolled in our residential programs. This includes guests enrolled at each of our campuses, Gateway Center’s main location, Evolution Center, and Trinity Women’s Center. With a focus on ensuring that delicious nutritional meals are offered, our Chefs develop menus supporting our guests’ dietary needs, reducing stress, helping address health concerns, and providing a sense of comfort knowing their basic need of having a reliable food source will be met during their stay at Gateway Center. Our kitchen staff prepare meals while our guests provide “Caring Hours” and assist with packaging and serving meals.
Job Readiness Training
Participants of the food service program can pursue food prep positions at commercial food facilities, long-term care facilities, hospital food service departments, corporate food service, hotels and resorts, governmental food agencies, and school food service. Guests that complete the culinary program will be certified by the National Restaurant Association’s ServSafe Management. Our team works closely with local restaurants to create a training that meets their unique needs and provides a pipeline to employment for our program participants.
Caroline’s Kitchen provides job readiness training opportunities for guests with an emphasis on knowledge of food preparation service and management of food service operations.
Caroline’s Kitchen offers guests a flexible curriculum to develop expertise in several areas related to the food service field. Training in our food service operations is designed to educate and train prospective commercial and non-commercial food service professionals in the basics of food service sanitation and safety, cost control, purchasing and kitchen management.
Providing:
Over 1000 meals per day
Job readiness training opportunities for guests