ROBERT JORDAN: It's a huge operation. Food donations come into the Greater Chicago Food Depository from food retailers and manufacturers and from food drives. In the last fiscal year, 40 millions pounds of food went out to hundreds of shelters, soup kitchens and food pantries, most of them faith-based. But within this food depository is a school where people in need of work are trained to be chefs.
UNIDENTIFIED INSTRUCTOR: All right guys, everybody get behind a cutting board.
JORDAN: These are low-income or destitute people who have struggled to make ends meet. They may be unemployed, living on food stamps, or unable to afford a car.
RACHEL YBARRA (Chef Trainee): Before I came here I stayed home. I lost my husband. I lost my son. I've been home. I just want to come out here and get something done with my life now.JORDAN: On this frigid January morning, 17 men and women are starting a three-month program after which, if they stick it out, they could become professional chefs.
UNIDENTIFIED INSTRUCTOR: What we're going to work on today is we're going to work on how to properly hold your knife.
JORDAN: There is no tuition, but it costs the Food Depository $4,000 to train each person, so the applicants are carefully screened. They must show up for three days of volunteer work, even before they are accepted as trainees.
UNIDENTIFIED INSTRUCTOR: Watch me first, please.
JORDAN: It's designed to be a rigorous program. In all likelihood, some of the 17 people who started will not graduate. Lisa Gershenson is the executive chef.LISA GERSHONSON (Executive Chef): They need to be here on time, and when we say on time it doesn't mean walk into the building at 7:30. It means being upstairs, dressed, ready to go and in their seats at 7:30. We're very strict about attendance.
JORDAN: Show up late four times or miss four classes and you're out.
Kate Maehr is executive director of the Food Depository.
KATE MAEHR (Executive Director, Greater Chicago Food Depository): There are going to be tough days. And they all have moments where, whether it's a day that's cold outside and you're waiting for the bus and you're thinking to yourself, "Why on earth am I doing this?" Or your feet are tired, or you're trying to juggle the demands of raising a family and doing a training program.
TYANNE FONZA (Chef Trainee): I don't mind the commute, because it's something that I really want to do. I stay on the west side of Chicago now, so it's pretty much like a train and maybe two buses.AARON THOMPSON (Chef Trainee): I'm not looking for no easy job here. I know I've got to start from scratch, from the ground up, and build up. So I'm looking for challenges. And I'm just ready to conquer this class. As long as my car keeps running, I'm here every day.
Ms. MAEHR: Every day they're teaching the students culinary skills,
but they're also talking to them about the problems they're confronting in their own lives. They're giving them advice on what's appropriate workplace behavior. They're giving them tips for success.JORDAN: There are thirty chefs training classes around the country sponsored by a national network of food banks called Second Harvest. During a recent survey of students, one-quarter of all the students said that, prior to taking the classes, they were homeless. Half were on food stamps. Most completed the training and had found jobs within one month.
UNIDENTIFIED INSTRUCTOR: Okay, guys. Turn to page 14-1: Poultry.
JORDAN: It's five weeks into the program. Three students are already out. They've been late or missed too many classes.
UNIDENTIFIED INSTRUCTOR: What's the internal temperature we need to cook our poultry to?
CHEF TRAINEES: One hundred sixty-five.
UNIDENTIFIED INSTRUCTOR: Okay, for a minimum of...?
Ms. MAEHR: I've had many a student say, "It was the knowledge that I had to get up, and it was cold outside, and I didn't want to take the bus to get to the Food Depository. But I knew that there was a child out there that would get that meal. And I knew when I was a child I didn't have that meal."
JORDAN: All smiling and proudly wearing their well-earned chefs' caps, the graduates dance in for their big day. During the three months of training this group, the 37th class to complete the program, prepared more than 100,000 meals for school children in need. For these people trying to work their way out of poverty, failure was not an option.
THOMPSON: The sky's the limit. You point your finger up there at night and see the stars up there -- you might see me up there.
