Eight students graduated from the Delaware Food Bank’s Culinary School last week. And there was something extra special to celebrate as well – new funding.
Barclays presented a $125,000 check to the culinary school last Thursday. That funding will help support scholarships for students like Alberta Siamah.
Siamah received over $5,000 to attend the 14-week culinary program. Now, she’s working at Panda Express. She says the program didn’t just help improve her cooking skills. It also taught her to budget better.
“The same money that I used to have, that is not enough," Siamah said. "Now – living with the same money – by the end of the month, I still have something left that I can save for myself.”
Kim Turner with the Food Bank of Delaware says the Barclays funding will also support scholarships for Culinary School graduates like Siamah to take their careers to the next level.
Turner says that includes the 10-week ManageFirst summer certificate program that prepares students for food industry management positions.
And once in their new space around this time next year, the Food Bank of Delaware will have the capacity to double cooking programming.
