Community Kitchen student Chilku Yi, left, hugs Chef Instructor Jamie Eisenburg, right, while Chef Instructor Brian Dermody, center, and Academic Instructor Kris Degenhardt, second-from-left, look on during graduation ceremonies for Community Kitchen students at the Chittenden County Food Shelf in Burlington, Vt.,Thursday, Dec.17. (Vermont Daily News/Alden Pellett)

 

 

 

 

 

Burlington, Vt. – When 100% of an education program’s class graduates, it’s an impressive thing.  Today one hundred percent of the Community Kitchen class in Burlington, Vt. did just that. 

Community Kitchen is a culinary job training program that prepares unemployed and underemployed men and women for careers in the food service industry through the national network of food banks. Today, Thursday, Dec. 17, all ten students that started the course 14 weeks ago received their diplomas from the local culinary training program in Burlington during a ceremony at the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf in Burlington, Vt.

John Sayles, CEO of the Vermont Foodbank, spoke to the graduates, “We’ve seen three graduating classes come out of here and we’re already seeing the success stories.”  He praised them for seizing the opportunity to really transform their lives and pointed out that by going through this program they would also touch other people’s lives.

Burlington School District Food Service Director Doug Davis spoke to the students at the event about their program which also benefits the food shelf, “What has been created here is not just a safety net, where people can come and get something, but where people can actually come and take something away. What you guys have done over the past 14 or 16 weeks is amazing. I’ve been working in education for almost 12 years. I’ve never been at a school that had 100 percent graduation. It’s unbelieveable.  said Davis, adding, “That to me, shows the commitment not just for the individuals who are in the class, but of the chefs and the organizations. The commitment that this community has to care for its own.”  

Vermont Adult Learning’s Academic Instructor Kris Degenhardt congratulated the students, pointing out the exceptional camaraderie among the class which he helped teach this semester.

Graduate Steve Reyes Anzano, 40, of Burlington, who shed a tear after receiving his diploma, thanked the program and his instructors at the ceremony saying the knowledge given them was immeasurable, the sense of humor and style precious, and that students would carry those things with them for a lifetime.  Anzano summed it up best for many when he said, “You instilled in adult learners ’The Little Engine That Could’ syndrome.”

-Vermont Daily News staff report