Second Harvest culinary program serves up new chefs on path to gainful employment

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – New chefs graduated from Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida’s Culinary Program on Saturday.

Between the two graduating classes, 17 new chefs received their diplomas after completing the 16-week program.

Second Harvest officials said this brings the total number of graduates from the program up to 525.

During the program, students go from learning the basics to how to prep their stations in a commercial kitchen.

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Chef Instructor Israel Santiago said 95% of the program’s graduates have been able to find jobs.

“We are extremely grateful to the hotels, the theme parks that hire our students, and our goal is to make our students as strong as possible so that they can survive in those settings, and we want to say thank you to the community for that,” Santiago said.

Santiago said another 16-week culinary program is about to begin. To find out more about the program, click here.