THUNDER BAY – Confederation College and the Regional Food Distribution Association announced a new partnership on Thursday that promises excellent work experience for students and steady food prep help for the RFDA.
Culinary management students in the new food production course are getting some real-world experience through a new partnership with the RFDA that has students preparing food for distribution.
“The food that we receive at the RFDA is being donated to us and then we're shipping it to the college so that they can expand their culinary program,” said Tanner Harris, food service manager at the RFDA.
“So with that expansion, they're offering a batch cooking program that allows students to learn how to cook in large volume and the food is then getting packaged up into bulk containers and individual containers. Then it's sent back to us at the RFDA so we can distribute it through our network.”
In addition to the benefit to the RFDA, students also get the chance see what it takes to work in large kitchens and bulk food environments. Ken Veneruz, coordinator of the culinary management program, said he hopes to expand the partnership in the future.
“I think we're at our infancy stage. I hope down the road that we will be able to do more with the RFDA because they're expanding their operation,” he said.
“So my vision for the future would be having students actually go to their operation, see what's happening there and then produce food at the RFDA. I think that would be extremely entertaining and exciting for the students.”
This week, Veneruz said that his students prepared 700-800 meals, including over 43 turkeys, all of which will be distributed by the RFDA to people in need.
