BY ALBINA BASSARAB
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Students in Roseville High School’s Culinary and Hospitality Management Program are using the skills taught in their classroom and kitchen lab to cater events.
This system provides them with some of the necessary finances to sustain the program.
The program gets its funding partially from the district and partially from catering such events.
According to RHS assistant principal Jason Wilson, the district has approved the program and sets apart a certain sum of money for its funding.
Junior and teacher’s intern Neal Reilly, who has completed all three levels of the culinary program, has a lot of experience with catering, the other source of revenue.
“Basically we do catering for anything really, as long as they come and ask us,” Reilly said. “Last year we did all the Toys for Tots cookies, this year we did the whole trial thing in the big theatre, we held a lunch for the attorneys and the judges.”
According to the Tiger Café and Catering Instructor, Angela Ash, the program’s financial position has significantly decreased this year.
“We write a grant request to Perkins, which is a federal source for Career Technical Education, to help us pay for facilities maintenance and upgrades to equipment, teacher training, etcetera,” Ash said. “This source only yielded to our department [is] 4,000 dollars this year, which is significantly reduced from years’ past by nearly one hundred percent.”
Reilly is thankful for the opportunity to cater different events since they fund most of the day-to-day activities the classes perform.
“The caterings that we do, we get paid certain amount of money for,” Reilly said. “The profit that we gain is after we take out all the cost for food, supplies, that’s how we get most of the money for our labs.”
The culinary class also held a breakfast for the Roseville Health Fair last month.
According to Ash, they strive to earn approximately 30% more profit than what they spend, but their numbers vary.
Sophomore Destini Vassar is currently in the second level of the culinary program ‘Methods, World Cuisines & Catering.’
She enjoys participating in the caterings and finds them beneficial.
“It’s cool to get that experience for a future job,” Vassar said.
Culinary student Neil Reilly, is thankful for the opportunity to cater different events since they fund most of the day-to-day activities the classes perform and that he enjoys.
“The profit that we gain is after we take out all the cost for food, supplies, that’s how we get most of the money for our labs,” Reilly said. “I have always liked cooking – yeah it was fun helping my mom cook dinner – but after this class, it just broadened my spectrum of how much I love cooking and how many different things I can make that I didn’t know I would [be able to].”
Junior Elizabeth Ayala, who is in the entry level of the culinary program, ‘Intro to Food and Beverages,’ enjoys being in a class that is practical and provides students with physical involvement.
“I love cooking and doing things that are hands-on,” Ayala said. “I also enjoy making new recipes and learning how food works together.”
The second level of the course is ‘World Cuisines & Catering,’ where students are educated on the different cultures and cuisines around the world.
“It’s all about learning the different cuisines in the world like you go through Mediterranean, Asia, Europe,” Reilly said. “You’ll learn all those different techniques and all the different flavor profiles that correspond with the areas.”
