It was short notice, but Manna Soup Kitchen has gone to Plan B after Southwest Colorado Community College canceled its culinary arts class that was scheduled to start Jan. 18.
“We’re doing it ourselves,” said Kathy Tonnessen, executive director of the soup kitchen. “The students won’t get college credit, but we’ll be issuing our own certificate. Most of the people we’re working with want a job and just need the skills.”
The class will start Monday. At an organizational meeting Tuesday, 11 students signed up, one more than SWCC said it needed to pay instructor Arnold “Chef Safari” Ngumbao. At the time the college made its decision, six students had signed up.
Part of the problem, Tonnessen said, was the college’s timing requirements and the population Manna serves.
“As much as we want them to plan ahead and encourage them to plan ahead, they just don’t,” she said.
“One door closes, another one opens. It was a great collaboration, but we had tossed it around several times about taking it over ourselves.”
McKenzie Miller, who is Manna’s culinary manager, will take the lead as the instructor and plans to bring in a certified chef at least once a week to work with the students.
“She’s absolutely capable in her own right,” Tonnessen said, “and she has a great presence. The students were so excited after meeting with her today.”
Another thing that goes away with the community college partnership is access to financial aid and scholarships.
Manna has dropped the cost of the course for at least this class to $250 per student, about 10 percent of the cost through SWCC, Tonnessen said.
“We got $200 from SWCC from the tuition, so this is just a little more than that,” she said.
“And for students who need scholarship help, we’ll be asking restaurants to sponsor them and maybe have them work as an intern there.”
This will be the fourth class since Manna and its donors raised about $950,000 to construct a building with a training kitchen for the classes.
Tonnessen said the class will be similar to previous classes with a mix of clients and other community members,
“We have a mother and daughter who just want to learn to cook,” she said, “and a student from (Durango School District) 9-R’s Pathway to Success for special-needs, the 18- to 21-year-olds. She took the class last spring and did really well. Her parents said she enjoyed it so much, she wants to take it again.”
abutler@durangoherald.com
