FRESH Food

Our newest social enterprise, FRESH Food launched in January 2011 as an extension of VWW’s Transitional Jobs program.  At its core, FRESH Food offers skills training and employment supports to women with multiple barriers to employment.  Through their work in the kitchen and in the classroom, the crew develops self-confidence, work experience, and marketable skills needed to transition into permanent employment.

This job training initiative employs a crew of Transitional Jobs program graduates in basic workplace and food service skills, including fundamental food safety and sanitation, knife skills, operation of food service equipment, and skills relating to the operation’s management.

FRESH Food makes use of the O’Brien Community Center’s industrial kitchen in Winooski to prepare nutritious meals for childcare centers in the Burlington and Winooski area.  Through an established a partnership with Good News Garage, the program is able to provide delivery services to the childcare centers.

In addition to childcare meals, the crew has been trained by and now produces dumplings for A Single Pebble restaurant in Burlington. The production of dumplings is a very intricate process and one that the trainees work up to during the duration of their employment. Our first graduate was hired by A Single Pebble and has used her dumpling training as a springboard for other specialty skills.

As the program grows, so does its reputation for locally grown nutritious meals prepared with a social mission in mind. FRESH Food has expanded its audience and does catering for special events for local area businesses and nonprofit organizations.

For more information on FRESH Food’s catering services, contact Melissa Corbin at (802) 655-8900, ext 114. Learn more about our catering offerings here. See our Recipe of the Month.

 

Additional benefits of the FRESH Food program include:

• Increased nutrition for our community’s children.
• A trained workforce for our local food sectors.
• Heightened self-esteem of the work crew by “giving back” to the community through nutritious meals.
• Improving the nutritional knowledge, eating habits, and health of crew members and their families.

Some of the recent highlights of work FRESH Food provides:

• An average of 75 breakfasts and 200 lunches per day through the City of Winooski Summer Food Program, catering to the programs such as City of Winooski Basketball Camp, Thrive, Dream, the Boys and Girls Club, English Language Learners program, the Winooski Family Center preschool, summer school and various playgroups.
• An average of 40 lunches daily for two Champlain Valley Head Start Centers in Burlington:  Trinity Children’s Center and Robin’s Nest Children’s Center.
• Catering for approximately 5 special events each month.
• Approximately 400 dumplings per week for A Single Pebble Restaurant in Burlington.

We thank Jane’s Trust and the Hendrickson Family Foundation for critical start-up funding for this project, as well as other key partners:

• Creative Workforce Solutions
• Vermont Department of Labor
• United Way of Chittenden County, Chittenden County Childcare Food Project
• Joanne Heidkamp,
• Christina Duval, A Single Pebble Restaurant
• J Ladd, City of Winooski
• Burlington School District Food Service.

Currently, job openings are reserved for Transitional Jobs participants or graduates. If you are interested in learning more about that program, contact Louise Mastin at (802) 655-8900 x503.