Jacques Pepin Foundation Awards $10K To Local Literacy Volunteers

Press release from Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford:

Jan. 19, 2021

Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford (LVGH) has received a $10,000 grant from the Jacques Pepin Foundation in support of the Food Services Job Training Program. The program helps to prepare LVGH students for careers in food service, and graduates have gone on to work in schools, restaurants, and hotels and conference centers. Students take a course on basic food safety in preparation for ServSafe® Food Handler certification, and gain practical skills by learning to prep, cook, and serve free meals for the local community. Upon successfully completing the program, students have the opportunity to interview for employment with the program’s employer partner, Sodexo.

In 2020, at the height of the COVID crisis, LVGH students in the Sodexo program continued to serve free meals to the community. The number of meals served doubled when compared to the same period of 2018 and 2019.

“We are so grateful to the Jacques Pepin Foundation and their partnership in providing this program, which not only offers low literate and under-employed adults a pathway to employment, but is an important food security resource for the community, especially during this pandemic,” said Carol DeVido Hauss, Executive Director of LVGH.

In addition to the Food Services Job Training Program, Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford offers volunteer-led, small-group classes in basic reading and writing, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), GED preparation, math, digital literacy, U.S. Citizenship, and other topics at literacy centers in Hartford, East Hartford, and virtually. The organization serves adults from 22 cities and towns in the Greater Hartford region.

This press release was produced by the Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford. The views expressed here are the author's own.