When it comes to poverty, Manna Soup Kitchen has been on the front lines in our community for almost 30 years. It has risen to the challenge of serving double the number of meals from only six years ago, from 35,000 to 70,000. The board has expanded services when it saw a need, adding showers and computers and planting a large garden, so it could always serve fresh produce.
On Thursday, the nonprofit took a big step in a new direction, opening a new training facility where locals can gain skills necessary to work in our thriving restaurant sector.
“About five years ago, our board worked on a strategic plan to deal with the underlying cause of poverty,” Executive Director Kathy Tonnessen said to a crowd of about 100 people at the facility’s grand opening. “So many people are unemployed, underemployed or homeless, and they need skills to change that.”
But what kind of skills?
After a feasibility study, which included a monthlong survey of the classified ads in The Durango Herald, the decision was made to focus on food-service skills.
What they saw then still holds true. On Thursday, out of more than 125 classified ads in the Herald, more than 30 were for everything from line cooks and dishwashers to hostesses and servers at area restaurants.
Manna is providing the facility, which has offices for staff, a full-scale commercial kitchen and two large banquet rooms where students can practice front-of-house skills. Southwest Colorado Community College will handle the actual training. Graduates will earn a certificate for completion of the four-month course.
The curriculum includes courses such as food safety and sanitation, introduction to stocks, soups and sauces, vegetable preparation, breakfast cookery and baking everything from bread to pie. But it also focuses on life skills, business ethics, time management, problem solving and résumé writing.
Thomas Bentley, former owner of Beau Jo’s and food and beverage manager at Sky Ute Casino and Resort, is the new manager of the Manna Training and Resource Center.
“When I work the food line at the soup kitchen, I see gratitude in people’s eyes,” he said. “When I’ve talked to a few clients about this, there’s this hope. They literally light up, and I can see them thinking, ‘I can do this.’”
No one was beaming more at the opening than Manna’s former Executive Director Sarah Comerford, who helped Tonnessen cut the ribbon. She originally conceived of the project and did the early research, visiting similar programs such as Fair Start in Seattle and D.C. Kitchen in Washington, D.C.
“I’d been thinking about it for a long time,” she said, “and trying to figure out how to make it happen.”
Comerford figured out how to make it happen when she moved to her new position as director of The Karakin Foundation, cutting a check for $500,000 toward the $950,000 project. About 87 percent of the donations were local, including $50,000 from Marc Katz, a co-founder of Mercury, and his wife, Jane, who have donated to several educational causes. About $120,000 came from Front Range funders such as El Pomar and the Gates Family foundations.
“We got the ball rolling,” Comerford said about Karakin, “but Kathy, as executive director, and the board launched and finished a capital campaign in 12 months.”
They were able to do that for one specific reason, she thinks.
“It’s been an excellent organization for a long time,” she said, “and people trust it.”
Sign me up
Heather Gibson, a mother of three, is determined to be a student in the first class.
“A lot of people have to leave Durango because they can’t get that first toehold experience here,” she said. “I hope this will be my first step to then going on to college to study the culinary arts. I eventually want to own my own restaurant or café.”
She’s most excited about the baking classes.
“I’m a desserts kind of girl,” she said. “Decorating brings out my artistic side. Eventually, I want to add my own flavor to Durango because this is home.”
Gibson is concerned that people don’t understand this new venture.
“People seem to think this is just an expansion of Manna,” she said, “and that it’s going to be overrun by homeless people. But they’re just trying to get their lives together, and this is spurring them to do that. This will do a lot for the whole economy of Durango because it’s open to the whole community.”
Bentley said Manna and Southwest Colorado Community College will work with students to help them find success in the program, whether it’s hooking them up with the Durango Education Center to earn their GED diplomas, so they’re eligible for the course or helping find internships for more experience after the course.
“I got a good piece of advice when I started my restaurant,” he said. “Set the qualifications high and never back down. Eventually, what will happen is that you’ll get a core group, and that group will bring their peers. I got the greatest people that way.”
It’s clear he’s planning to help graduate students who can meet those high qualifications.
“They have a new opportunity to move forward with this,” he said, “I got here early on Wednesday and got a little teary knowing that we’ll have successes and failures, and we’ll change lives.”
abutler@durangoherald.com
Manna Culinary Curriculum (PDF)
To learn more
The first class in the new Manna Culinary Training Program will be held Aug. 18. Classes will run 8 to 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The program will meet the accreditation standards of the American Culinary Federation.
Registration now is open at Southwest Colorado Community College, 701 Camino del Rio in the Commons Building. The tuition is about $2,700 for the four-month course, and some financial aid is available. Students must have a high school or GED diploma.
Information also is available by calling the college at 247-2929, ext. 7211, or Thomas Bentley, manager of the Manna Training and Resource Center, at 385-5095, ext. 6.
Class sizes are limited.
