Cridge Brain Injury Services – Training and Employment Program
Redesigning Lives to Achieve Maximum Potential
A project originally funded by Vancouver Foundation for three years was called Feeding the Future and it was born from the success of our original Community Kitchen which brought survivors together to cook and share a meal. The potential of survivors was revealed in the kitchen along with their keen desire to return to more meaningful activity in their lives. We believed the abilities they demonstrated could lead to gainful employment with some honing of skills and sound encouragement.
In this project, survivors received training in all aspects of the business including food safety, production, marketing, sales and business development. This increased their employment skills, experience, confidence, stamina, and income.
Feeding the Future Evolution
We began with teaching survivors to garden. They started growing a general assortment of vegetables and pumpkins, which were celebrated at the end of the season with a fun day for the children from daycare.
We began to look at ways in which to build a business from this garden and the program morphed into the Kale Kings. The Kale Kings grew kale, adapted the recipe for Flourless Chocolate Fudge Cookies to include kale (under the blessings of Chef Nik) and began packaging and selling the cookies at outdoor markets and small shops.
As more interest grew, from both survivors and the community, we put together a program to educate and train more individuals in food service skills. The Food Service Skills Training (FSST) is a 12-week program and teaches survivors all the basics of the food industry. They learn basic skills, undergo job readiness in the food industry, and obtain food safe certification.
With more graduates from FSST, we began to look for ways to enhance their skills beyond the course. This inspired us to look at ways to give back to the community and to generate additional revenue in the community, which in turn, is put back into the program. Ultimately, it led us to develop the Breakfast Program with the Cridge Daycare (our giving back in the community) and a Hot Lunch Program at Pacific Christian School (generating revenue for sustainability).
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