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Famed singer’s grant will help Community Transition Program build kitchen
12/17/2018Students in Portland Public Schools’ Community Transition Program will get to learn valuable culinary skills, thanks in a part to a donation from a legendary singer.
Using a $5,000 grant from the foundation of Paul Simon, of Simon & Garfunkel and “Graceland” fame, along with $5,000 from the Oregon Community Foundation, CTP will install a full kitchen at its Southeast Portland campus. CTP serves special education students who have completed at least four years of high school classes and helps them transition to life after high school.“We thought it would be great to put in a training kitchen here because many of our students want to get into the culinary field,” said Thelina O’Daniel, CTP principal.
The $5,000 gift is part of a $10,000 grant PPS received from Simon, who donated to local organizations at each stop of his recent worldwide farewell tour, which included Portland’s Moda Center on May 19. The other half of the grant went to Lane Middle School, which is a few blocks from CTP.
“We’re very grateful to Paul Simon for his generosity,” said Jonathan Garcia, Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships and External Affair. “His investment in our schools is a great benefit to our students at CTP and Lane.”
The kitchen at CTP will allow students to learn culinary skills, such as knife handling and food prep, from professional chefs who have agreed to give mini-lessons. The design of the kitchen will comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, with a sink and center island that will be leveled to let students in wheelchairs to roll right up to them.
The kitchen will allow students to use produce grown at the school’s Green Thumb nursery, where students grow a variety of plants that are sold throughout the year.
“A lot of the ingredients for sandwiches and salads will be a farm-to-table thing,” O’Daniel said. “They’ll pick the ingredients outside and bring them in, wash them, process them, then use those fresh ingredients for the sandwiches and the salads.”
About 50 students will use the kitchen, which will be built starting in January and be completed in March or April. The CTP students will be able to make sandwiches, coffee and other food and, under an agreement with Lane, sell and deliver them to the middle school’s teachers and staff.
“It’s going to open up huge opportunities for my students to learn customer service skills, learn different soft set skills before we place them in an internship with a community partner,” O’Daniel said. “It’s really exciting.”
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