In its three-decade-long run, Bread and Roses has helped hundreds of Angelenos get their foot through the door with culinary training, social and emotional learning, and job placement
by Ezra Salkin May 1, 2024, 11:23am PDT
A steaming plate of Ethiopian collard greens and spiced red lentils greeted Sarah Irene Harvey, a formerly unhoused 47-year-old living in Crenshaw, as she settled in for a meal at Bread and Roses Cafe in March 2023. Colors burst from the plate, as bright as the rose mural painted on the dining room’s back wall; the rush of spices jolted her senses. Harvey had eaten at the Venice soup kitchen dedicated to feeding Los Angeles’s unhoused and food-insecure community on several occasions since arriving in the city in 2018, but this morning’s meal was a departure from what she was used to.
That day, chef Tomas Hernandez, lead instructor of the Bread and Roses Training Kitchen, worked alongside a group of his students, each of them enrolled in the neighborhood culinary training program. (Disclosure: I was a student in this program from February to April 2023.) As part of the curriculum, he and the on-duty culinary trainees planned, prepped, and cooked the Ethiopian feast for the cafe’s 100 or so diners for a daylong takeover. After her experience that day, Harvey signed up to be a student in the program — her third time formally applying. Though she was denied admission twice before — the first time because she did not have stable housing (the program requires students to be housed when enrolling) and the second time due to COVID-19 shutdowns — her third try proved to be the charm.
Bread and Roses Training Kitchen started in 1991 as part of St. Joseph Center, a nearly 50-year-old nonprofit founded by Catholic nuns to serve Los Angeles’s underserved populations: those who are facing homelessness or food insecurity, overcoming substance use disorders, formerly incarcerated, or veterans reentering society, among others. Students typically come from low-income households but there isn’t an income cap for enrollment.
Read the full article here: https://la.eater.com/2024/5/1/24107220/bread-and-roses-cafe-los-angeles-venice-non-profit-culinary-training-restaurant-jobs-st-joseph