 Hi, this is Pat McDonald, your host for Vote for Vermont, where our Tag 9 is listening beyond the soundbites. And today, it's a very exciting show. We are at the Community Kitchen Academy here in the Capstone Building in Barry, Vermont, and we're with Chef Jamie Eisenberg. Chef. Hi. Thank you for being on the show. Thanks for coming. Here is a resource in this city and in this state that I bet you don't know about, and I want to bring it to you because it's a very exciting program. Chef, could you tell us a little bit about the Community Kitchen Academy and what it's all about? Sure. Community Kitchen Academy is a non-profit training program that provides skills and hands-on experience to low-income, underemployed Vermonters to help them get a head start in the food service industry. We partner with the Vermont Food Bank. We're actually a Vermont Food Bank program, and we're partnering here with Capstone Community Action. And the food that the students use to practice their skill sets on has been donated through the Vermont Food Bank, and all the food that we make here are thousands of pounds every session. Three times a year, we make up 5,000 pounds of food, gets donated where we actually distribute it right through our food shelf here to our neighborhood for people in need that need sustenance and extra food. That's great. We're back. We took a little break because we were actually filming right in the kitchen, and the students got their assignments for the day, so we thought we'd move into the chef's office. So excuse my back while we continue the interview. So Chef, could you tell us a little bit about your background? I've known you for years, and don't really know the background. Oh, sure. Well, I think we have a growing up in New Jersey in common. Yes, I remember that conversation. So we have good food in our background. Well, I actually was going to be an artist, so I went off after high school. I went off to Rhode Island School of Design, and I majored in printmaking there. And just like most starving artists, I got a job working in a restaurant to make some cash, and I started washing dishes. And before I knew it, I was the sous chef of the restaurant. I was still in school full-time, and when I graduated, I loved the lifestyle. I loved working in kitchens, and I stayed in that niche. A couple of years went by, and I said, well, if I better take this seriously, I went looking for what was next, and I saw an ad for New England Culinary Institute up here in Vermont, and I said culinary school in Vermont sounded pretty good to me. So I changed my career path and got an associate's degree in culinary, and then actually worked for New England Culinary for almost 10 years as a chef instructor there after I graduated. And so that really set me on a path of instruction and working with students and teaching skill sets, and went back into the industry for several years after that. I opened City Market. I was the prepared foods manager there. I opened the new store there, and after that, somehow I found a niche of opening up prepared foods departments in grocery stores, and I went on to help Healthy Living open up their new store as well. So I was the prepared foods manager there. And then Community Kitchen started, and I said, okay, I wanna go back to teaching. And then I wound up working in Burlington for four years when the program started there. So the size of your classes are what, eight to 10 students? They wind up to be that big, and that's similar to what Necki had for years. So we start with a group of maybe 14 students that enroll, and not everybody shows up the first day. People have life issues. Life gets in the way sometimes. Life gets in the way, and the classes usually get down to about a graduating class of about eight average. So I saw here on your website, which I would hope everybody would check out. You've got several locations. Is that the kitchen locations or the capstone location? We have two locations for Community Kitchen Academy. Our original campus is in Burlington, and that's located at the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf. And that agency is CVOEO, Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity. So that's who the food bank is partnering with there and the location for the classes at the food shelf. Here, the food bank is partnering with Capstone Community Action, and this is our second campus here in this building. And do you divide your time between the two, or you're here in family? No, I'm here now. I spent four years in Burlington. When this opportunity came up, I jumped on it and I came over here, and it really helped create continuity between the campuses. And so we all meet and we collaborate and try to keep the programs very similar in both campuses because we're an accredited program now. We offer nine college credits for completion of all the assignments, and along with our graduation certificate. So it's very important that we keep the standards the same for both programs. What is your graduation rate? Is it a high graduation rate? We have lots of statistics and numbers. I don't know the number offhand, but I think our graduation rate is somewhere in 75%. That's great. Something like that. And our employment rate post-graduation is now around 90%. Oh, kind of graduation. Which is terrific, and that includes people that are getting jobs, keeping jobs, and also going to further education after that. Well, we're gonna talk to Susie Ford afterwards, and she was a graduate of your previous course and is now gonna be working here, hopefully. Let's hope so, and she's also trying to start a business of her own. So we're helping her to get her feet on the ground so that she can transition into her own business after this. Now, you were telling me that I had the pleasure of coming here to, I think, a graduation test. Well, it was a final project. It was a final project, plated luncheon, which was beyond description. It was like a four-star restaurant. It was spectacular. And I've been telling everybody the pride that the students had when they were explaining what they made to us. It was, the chef had invited people from Barry City, and I was fortunate enough to be working there, and raise my hand quick. By the time I got to dessert, it was just... It was a little overwhelming. It was a bit much. I couldn't finish the dessert, which says a whole lot about, and it was fabulous. So you told me now that you actually turned that event into a fundraiser. That's right. Every session, we try to craft a fundraiser for the class. The money comes back, we offer a luncheon of some kind, and people that are invited pay good dollar amount to get, it's usually about a five-course meal, and they have a theme. We've done Thai, we've done Chinese, we've done... Last session, we actually had it off campus at Grow Compost in Mortown, and we did a Latin outdoor picnic, and we built our own wood grill from stones on the land and used wood from the land, and a pig from the land, and it was a farm-to-table event, and it was beautiful, and we had live stations. Why don't you get your name on the list? Well, you know, I think we can work something out. I'm gonna leave you my card. Food is my life, I must say. I follow the food channel faithfully, so anyway, I've got some stories about that. So, we just watched you this morning giving your assignments to the class, and I must say it wasn't true what the end result would be. It was quite a collection of assignments of food. At the end of the day, does it come together in a... Yeah, we always do a little tasting of the food that we have. It's very important that the students try the food because we're making it as for customers. I mean, these are people that come to the food shelf and they're not paying for the food, but they're still our customers, so we wanna make sure that the food looks good, tastes good, it's well-balanced, it's seasoned properly, all of those things, because when they leave here, they need to have that skill set to be able to evaluate the food, so they try everything. We take a little sampling and the kitchen, all of those assignments were based on stations, so each one of the students had a station they were responsible for, and they have these stations for two days, so we did it fairly quickly because they really understood what was going on. Somebody was working with the meat protein, someone was doing an a la carte plated meal, somebody was doing starches and vegetables, somebody was doing the baking, et cetera, and so they understood the nature of their station, so the second day, they rotate every two days. We really actually treat it like a professional kitchen, this is our production for the day, and some of these things are all gonna come together onto a plated meal, and some are just gonna go into bulk packaging. Wow, and we're gonna tell them that you've got a space here at Capstone that acts as a food shelf. It is a food shelf, it is a food shelf. It's the second largest food shelf of the state. Oh, I didn't know that. Yes, after Burlington, yes. Excellent, excellent, yes. So people are free to come in and we'll go check that out, and it's food from here. It's food from here, plus donated food through the food bank and other donors. Now this, we were talking to the Vermont Food Bank people yesterday, and they said they pretty much set up this kitchen. Yes, that's right. Because they used to do, I was at a gleaning volunteer event there, and they said all of that kitchen came here. That's right, when they started partnering with Capstone, they no longer needed the kitchen up on the hill at the food bank. So all the kitchen equipment came down to this kitchen and were put into place here. So it was pretty much ready to go. They needed just to supplement a little bit. And we were able to also have the chef from the food bank come and work with us for the first two years here. He has now since moved on, but it was a great transition, just great resource to have all that equipment and set this kitchen up. What a partnership. It really is. We were talking yesterday that one out of four Vermonters are dealing with food insufficiency, which to me is just appalling, I think that's the word. It's pretty shocking. We have full distribution here on Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays, where the people that sign up to receive groceries from the food shelf can come and get an allotment of food. And there are some mornings when the lobby here is packed. Wow. Hacked with people. And it's really something to see. It's like it really reminds you that we're pretty lucky to have what we need and not everybody has the resources. Well, and what I found just, I don't want to take away from our discussion about the community kitchen, but you can't tell what circumstances people are in. You think that there's funding in the family and circumstances, whether it be a sickness of a child, which is taken over the available resources and people need help. And that's the first place that people cut. That's right. Because you need to pay your mortgage. You need to pay. They gotta heat the homes and everything. So this agency helps with all of those things. That's great. So this is one program among many that are here to help people that have hardship with housing, with heat, with weatherization, with food, shelter, all of these things. We're really here to help out. That's great. And this program helps out with job training and food. They go together. Oh, absolutely. I'm just so impressed with what Capstone does and what you're doing, obviously. So tell me a little bit about this side venture you have about Pies, I hear. Oh my gosh. And I hear they are spectacular. Well, it's become more than just a side venture. I also have a small business. So I learned some entrepreneurial skills years ago from another nonprofit, the Women's Small Business Program. And my partner and I started a small bakery in Underhill, Vermont. And it's called Poor House Pies. Right. We've been in operation for six years now, growing every year. We were just on a PBS documentary on Tuesday night called A Few Good Pie Places that was produced by WQED in Pittsburgh. And our business actually has tripled since last Tuesday. How do you keep up with this? It's tough. I get up in the morning at 4 to 5 and I start baking by about 5.30. I do a little bit of work at home before I come here. And then I. You're planning for today. Exactly, right. And then I do this all day. And then I go home and make pie. Oh, bless you. And they're all, it looks like there's a lot of fruit pies. Fruit pies and cream pies. My partner does the fruit pies. I mostly do the cream pies. So the big seller right now is Key Lime Pie. So I made 12 Key Lime Pies before I came to work today. And where do you sell them? Where are they available? We sell them right directly through our bakery. We actually have a shed in our yard that operates like a farm stamp. And it's a self-service. Give us the address, Chef. 23 Park Street in Underhill. And it's a self-service pie stand where there's money in a bank. You leave your money and take a pie. And you can have a pie slice of pie right there at a table at our stand. And we also have wholesale accounts in Burlington, around town at some of the major stores, Sweet Clover Market, City Market, Healthy Living seasonally. And we actually do product for Doberty downtown as well. Good for you. Yeah, so we're pretty busy. This is a busy lady. You've got me exhausted. Food is my life. Exactly. So how do people qualify to be in this program? Well, they have to fill out an application. And the application is available here at Capstone at the lobby, also online at the Vermont Food Bank's website. So feeding Vermont. We'll say the website later. They fill out an application. It comes to me. And then I usually give people a call back and invite them to what we call an information session. It's like an open house. And I do them probably half a dozen times during the end of the session in between and recruit. And I lay out all the details of the program. And I do a presentation. We usually give out cookies and really fill it out so that people understand what the program's all about. Sometimes we have them come in and spend some time at the class so they can shadow it and see what the class is like. And then there's an interview. And we do an interview, a one-on-one interview. We do a background check on all of our students. And then I build the next session class. And our next class will be beginning, I believe, in January, mid-January next year. And do you help people find jobs? Do you do a placement support for them as well? Absolutely. That's exactly what it is. It's placement support. We don't guarantee a job after graduation. But we do everything in our power to help them. We prepare them by resume writing and cover letter, interview skills, job search skills. Well, you've got all the resources here in Capstone. Exactly. We bring in resources from the Department of Labor. They do a presentation for us. So they're really well-suited to know how to find a job. Last session, all of our students had jobs prior to graduation. So yeah, that was really big. And so most of the students will be able to find some employment before or after graduation. I have employers calling us all the time, I need people. I need people. Can you send people to me? And that's excellent because then we make the connection very easily. My favorite chef, other than yourself, is Marcus Samuelson. And I follow him constantly. I've even been to his restaurant in New York. And he had a book, Yes, Chef. And how he explains what really happens in a kitchen is pretty intimidating, I think, is how do you prepare your students for what it's really like in kitchens with a serious master chef? Well, I know that you're going to be speaking to students after this and interviewing them. You should ask them that question because it's exactly what we do. That is how we speak to each other in our kitchen. Yes, chef. I say there's really two responses when I ask you or tell you to do something. I try to ask. Yes, chef. Or ask a question. We don't really have time for a story. We don't have time for you. Well, I was going to. And then it's like, no, no. I just need to get it done. So we need to keep things pretty tight in the kitchen. We don't have time to waste on extra storytelling. So it is pretty cut and dry. And we do prepare these students for the professional communication style. Some chefs can be very gruff. They just want to keep moving on and maybe not to have the best communication skills. So there are days where I'm going to ramp it up a little bit for them and really act as if we're out there in the real world. According to the book, I think it sounds good that you're preparing them. Because it sounds pretty, I don't want to say cool, but you obviously learn a lot. And it's disciplined. It is disciplined. That's a better way to put it. And it can be very hierarchical, too. There are levels. And most people that stay in the food service are comfortable with those levels. They actually, they're levels of support and training. And so if I was working with a great chef, I would basically do whatever they asked me to do, because I'm going to learn so much from them. Well, when you've got several thousand people waiting outside the other door, you've got to serve. And each plate's got to be perfect. That's right. And our standards are very high. So the system actually works really well. Yeah, it does. It seemed to me. And obviously, Marcus has become very successful himself. So you also mentioned before, when you were talking to the students about the 50th anniversary, you had some incredible number of pieces that you're preparing. Well, we're working on a menu for a 50th anniversary celebration here at Capstone Community Action. This agency has been in operation that long. And we're having a big event here on the 27th of September. The Community Kitchen Academy is going to be helping with that event. We haven't 100% decided on the menu yet, but it's likely we're going to be doing wood-fired pizzas and possibly some cake as well. So but it's going to be 800 people. So we're prepping up early. Wow. People get an invitation. If you haven't seen this building, it's spectacular how the former executive director, Hal Cohen, who's now Secretary of Human Services, put all of your people together in this one building and varies thrilled. And I'm sure the employees like this. It's a beautiful place. Yeah. So what else have I not covered about this program that you'd like to talk about? Well, the thing that really gets me excited is the food's great. We cook, cook, cook, cook, cook. And I love to cook. I love to share what I know. But I consider the students my product, my best product. And so every day, I'm working on their character in the kitchen, their development, their grace, their communication style. So the time when we graduate them, and that's always a big event here is the graduation ceremony for each class, that I feel like I've put my love and attention and support into each one of them, and that they're off to do their best. And so I'm really proud of my product. And because the standards are very high. And so that's the thing that keeps me motivated to come back and do this over and over again. I'm so glad you're here. I'd love you to show us your food kitchen, and then we can talk to the students. Absolutely. Thank you very much, Jamie. You're welcome. Thanks, Pat. I really appreciate this. We're at the food bank here at Capstone, and the chef is explaining what Susie is doing. So actually, this is the food shelf of Capstone Community Action. A lot of people do that. They confuse the food bank and the food shelf, the food bank sponsors Community Kitchen Academy, and they donate food to the food shelf here. So food shelves really are different because they're where clients come to get food. The food bank really does mostly distribution and warehousing. So that's really, you know, I'm glad to describe that because a lot of people kind of mix up the terminology. It's really overwhelming at the food bank, yes. It is. It's a big place with trucks coming and going. Here we have people coming and going and getting food. So this is the side of things where the Community Kitchen Academy packages the food that's ready to go into distribution. So we've got Susie back here packing up some chili macs that the students made yesterday. And we have lots of different means to package food, cryovac, bags, heat sealing. We put labels on them, just like a store would have with the expiration date and ingredients. The only thing our food doesn't have on it is a price tag and a bar code. And calories. And calories. I like that one. And what's gonna happen? This food's gonna go directly into our walk, our reach-in refrigerators over here or if it's baked goods, it goes onto the shelf. And this is the side of things where the clients of Capstone that use the resources of the food shelf will come and get groceries, dry goods, and our prepared food. Okay. I'm gonna spend some time talking to Susie Ford, who is a recent graduate of this program and is now up for a job as Chef Jamie's assistant. I'll fight you for the job, Susie. I think I'll win. I think you will. Tell us what you found fascinating about the program and why you entered it. What was your experience? I entered it because I needed a new direction and I've always loved food and I've always loved being in the kitchen so it just seemed like that was the thing that I should do. So I came in and I met Chef Jamie and Chef Dave and they were amazing and maybe one of the best things I ever did was sign up for the, yeah? I'm not gonna be able to work here. Oh my God, it's just perfect. Before we graduated, me and a couple of my classmates said if we could just stay here forever and get paid to do what we've been doing, it would be the perfect job and then this came around and yeah, perfect. It must be a great feeling to be able to help people like yourself who needed a new direction. Yep, and I'm still a client of the food shelf. I still go through and get food. I still financially qualify to go through the food shelf so I'm here and I'm there and I like that. To me, this is the best kept secret about how did you find out about this program? Did somebody steer you in this direction? I had heard about it when I lived in New Hampshire and then we moved up here and I saw a flyer for it at the Reach Up office. Oh, okay. And that was, I looked into it and yeah. I think it would recommend it to anybody who's struggling, looking for a new direction and wants a pretty solid job because the food industry, we just talked before one of the students said that maybe she'd take this experience and become a food inspector so you don't necessarily have to be a chef. You can take your knowledge and use it in other jobs. Yep, there's all kinds of different things whenever it's interesting to you. That's great. Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks for taking the time. This is Lauren and Lauren was given the task today of making challah bread. And Lauren, what do you think about this program and how did you get to come here? I think it's great, Pat. I got to come here because I just wanted to further myself in culinary art and culinary science and I just figured out what it takes to me to make great food. That's great. Good for you and do you have visions in the future of where you might like to work? What kind of atmosphere? I like to work in a nice, friendly atmosphere, lots of teamwork. I'd like to open my own restaurant one day. Whoa, good for you. We were just talking to Chef Jamie. I read a book that was written by one of the famous chefs in New York and it was called Yes Chef and he was talking about how disciplined backstage is in restaurants with chefs. Some of them can be pretty demanding. Have you talked about the atmosphere in some of these kitchens? Yeah, well, every kitchen is different, every team is different, but we all have to mesh together like a fine-tuned machine, Pat, and I think we're trying our very best to do that. Good for you. Jamie said it's Yes Chef, right? Yes Chef. Yes Chef. Good for you. I wish you a lot of luck. Very nice. Thank you for talking to us. Moving over and talking to Dylan because he's working with one of my favorite food groups, bacon. What are you making? I am making a braised cabbage with bacon. So pretty much what I'm doing is I'm slicing the bacon up into just little pieces. I'm gonna put it in this big skillet here and it's gonna cook just till about crisp. I'm gonna add some onions in, and later on I'm gonna add, after I cut up six cabbages, I'm gonna add that all together and it's just gonna cook and with a little bit of garlic, which always adds flavor and some mustard seeds. Come on, really good. Great, good for you. And why did you want to come here to the community kitchen? Well honestly, I've tried a lot of different things in my life that at one point I wanted to be a mechanic and most of my high school and right after high school I've been doing shows and singing and acting and a lot of that. So I spent some time in New York City that didn't work out too expensive. I saw the opportunity here to learn how to cook and to do it professionally and hopefully make a career out of it. So I took the opportunity and I'm actually really, really enjoying it. You look like you're enjoying it. You got a big smile on your face. That's great. And so where do you envision yourself being in a couple of years? Honestly, I've had a couple of different options. I mean, I've always wanted to open up my own little cafe or something like that where I could just make a bunch of snacks and make one of my favorite things, just coffee and sandwiches and things like that. So I've always just wanted a very, just a good environment like that and it's quite a place to work. Independent. Yeah, yeah. Good for you. Thank you very much, Dylan. Not a problem. Thank you. Hi, we're here at the food shelf at Capstone and Jessica's gonna explain to what kind of produce are available. Hi, we have a bunch of the produce from cabbage, corn, peaches, apples, probably anything you can think of for produce. We have lots of bread. We carry canned foods, cereals, milk, eggs, pretty much anything you can think of. What are the hours that you're open for people to, they can just come in, right? Yeah, they can come in twice a month or every day for bread and veggies. We're open nine to noon and then we close for an hour and we're open back up one to three. Great, exactly. Very nice. Thank you for volunteering. This is great. Mira, hi, we know each other. Yes. Yes, we do for quite a few years. So new volunteer here? Yes. That's great. Why you volunteer? Just to help with my benefits and help raise my son. Oh, so they've asked you to do some community service when you pick the food show? Yes. That's a good thing to do. Yes. Nice to see you again. Yes, thanks. Just wanna thank Chef Jamie and all of her students for having us here today. I know you've learned a lot about the community cooking school and I wanna thank you for watching Vote for Vermont. Coming up, we have Representative Anne Donahue who is gonna talk about the Mental Health Hospital in Berlin and Meredith Angwin who is an energy policy analyst and will be talking about life after Vermont Yankee. That will be an interesting show. And we also have the Vermont Food Bank which I know you will love and a special guest coming up in a couple of weeks is Shauna Litzke. You all will remember her from WCAX. She did sports announcing for them but is now the partner in Vermont, the Brownie Company. Lot of exciting news for Shauna about how to start a small business and what's happening in her life these days. Thank you very much for joining us. We'll see you next week.