Job Training for 1)Chronically Unemployed

Broadcast: Feb 01, 2003

 

It's mid-afternoon at the DC Central Kitchen and Chef Karen Lewis is anxiously preparing hamburger meat to be used in tonight's dinner. "We use nothing but donated products to prepare a meal for about two thousand people a day," she says.

The DC Central Kitchen is a non-profit food distribution facility that serves the homeless community in America's capital city. People who can't afford to buy a healthy meal can come here and eat one for free. Karen Lewis says she knows what it's like to be homeless. She lived on the street for a number of years in the 1990s, while addicted¹ to heroin² and alcohol.

And Ms. Lewis says the experience is one she reminds herself of every day. "If I forget that I was down and out, and that I have experienced hunger, and I don't keep that up front, and keep helping³ the person behind me that's down and out and experiencing hunger, I won't go anywhere," she says.

Karen Lewis helps people who are "down and out" by doing more than just feeding them. In addition to being a chef, she's also an instructor⁴ in the kitchen's Culinary Jobs Training Program. Launched twelve years ago, the program has given more than seven hundred chronically⁵ unemployed⁶ people, including Karen Lewis, the skills they needed to get jobs in the food services industry.

Similar programs have been started in other large cities such as Chicago, Dallas, and San Francisco. In DC, 91 percent of the program's graduates have gotten jobs at area hotels, restaurants, and catering⁷ facilities. Program coordinator⁸ Tammy Taylor says initially⁹, her colleagues started training people, because they needed help in the DC Central Kitchen. But it wasn't long before they realized the food services industry is a perfect place for people looking to get a fresh start on life.

"A lot of the individuals that come to us are kind of "late bloomers," I'd like to say," she says. "They kind of have made a lot of different transitions in their life. And that's one of the beauties of food service. It's a field that you don't have to have a lot of ²⁾credentials, so to speak, "on paper", to make a lot of money, to advance within the field of hospitality."

In the food services industry, experience matters a whole lot more than formal training. But some amount of training is necessary to get your foot in the door, and that's what the DC Central Kitchen provides. Before they can begin, though, students must prove they've found a stable living situation, either with family members, or with a transitional housing program.

Because the 12-week course is ³⁾rigorous, Tammy Taylor says students need to be able to concentrate. "If you are "bouncing around," so to speak, or if you aren't in a stable environment, that kind of works against you," she says. "It works against your mindset when you're here, 'cause you may be worrying about 'Where am I going to sleep tonight? Where am I going to get something to eat? Am I going to be warm if it's cold out? Am I going to be cool if it's hot out?'"

In addition to learning how to cook and clean and follow all the safety and sanitation¹⁰ laws governing public kitchens, students learn how to present themselves at job interviews - how to be honest about their past, while at the same marketing¹¹ their skills.

"So if you have someone that may say to you, 'I see you haven't worked in three years.' And if that person has been ⁴⁾incarcerated, let's say, well, you know a part of me being in that program is I have to take motivational classes, I have to take anger management, I have to take life skills," says Ms. Taylor. "Those are things you can highlight, and it's OK to say that I took time to focus on me, so that I can be a better person as I present myself to you today."

In January, the DC Central Kitchen graduated its fiftieth class of culinary students. Some graduates already have jobs lined up at Georgetown University Law School, area hotels, and even the Central Intelligence Agency.

But as he stands in the kitchen, cooking salmon¹² for tonight's meal, Robert Walker says he has other plans. He wants to go to nearby Stratford University, so he can get a chef's degree and make his daughters, ages six and eight, proud. "They're always saying, 'Daddy, are you going to be a chef?" You know, I say, "I'm not a chef.' They say, 'You were a cook before, are you going to be a chef now?' I say 'Hopefully, I will be a chef soon.' And I explain to them about me trying to get into Stratford and everything. But it means a lot to them," he says. "They like to go tell people that their daddy is a chef now. To brag¹³ on me, you know? You know how kids are.

Robert Walker says that, more than anything else, is his motivation.

Maura Farrelly, VOA news, Washington

1)    Chronically[`krCnIkElI] adv. 长期地, 慢性地, 习惯性地

2)    credential[kri5denFEl]n. 外交使节所递的国书, 信任壮

3)    rigorous[5ri^ErEs]adj. 严格的, 严厉的, 严酷的, 严峻的

4)    incarcerate[in5kB:sEreit]vt. 把...关进监狱, 监禁

 

1 addicted   

adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的

参考例句：

• He was addicted to heroin at the age of 17.他17岁的时候对海洛因上了瘾。
• She's become addicted to love stories.她迷上了爱情小说。

2 heroin   

n.海洛因

参考例句：

• Customs have made their biggest ever seizure of heroin.海关查获了有史以来最大的一批海洛因。
• Heroin has been smuggled out by sea.海洛因已从海上偷运出境。

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

4 instructor   

n.指导者，教员，教练

参考例句：

• The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
• The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。

5 chronically   

ad.长期地

参考例句：

• Similarly, any pigment nevus that is chronically irritated should be excised. 同样，凡是经常受慢性刺激的各种色素痣切勿予以切除。
• People chronically exposed to chlorine develop some degree of tolerance. 人长期接触氯气可以产生某种程度的耐受性。

6 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

7 catering   

n. 给养

参考例句：

• Most of our work now involves catering for weddings. 我们现在的工作多半是承办婚宴。
• Who did the catering for your son's wedding? 你儿子的婚宴是由谁承办的？

8 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

9 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

10 sanitation   

n.公共卫生，环境卫生，卫生设备

参考例句：

• The location is exceptionally poor,viewed from the sanitation point.从卫生角度来看，这个地段非常糟糕。
• Many illnesses are the result,f inadequate sanitation.许多疾病都来源于不健全的卫生设施。

11 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

12 salmon   

n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的

参考例句：

• We saw a salmon jumping in the waterfall there.我们看见一条大马哈鱼在那边瀑布中跳跃。
• Do you have any fresh salmon in at the moment?现在有新鲜大马哈鱼卖吗？

13 brag   

v./n.吹牛，自夸；adj.第一流的

参考例句：

• He made brag of his skill.他夸耀自己技术高明。
• His wealth is his brag.他夸张他的财富。