This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.
I am the high school culinary arts chef instructor for a small country school district in South Carolina. We are a priority school with 3 schools in the district. My food lab and class room are located about 4 miles from the high school. I instruct culinary arts I and II in basic to advanced culinary arts skills in career preparation and college training. These students are in 9th to 12th grade and most of them are classified as disadvantaged students and about 99% Afro-American... I have a large number of special education students mainstreamed in my program. These students need a lot of hand on and visual theory training to build skills for future employment and possibly college.
My small rural district is awesome and they have purchased me a TV, a fully working computer, and DVD player for the next school year. With a small operational budget and having to set back 4,000.00 a school year to for the propane gas to heat our water and cook with, and when I purchase food and paper supplies, it leaves very little for extra items we need. The classes need to learn how to do a cooking show, how to do community service projects, and develop their skills in cooking and build self confidence. There are other lower grades in our district that have needs for their students. The essential question of the day is “How can we help both classes”?
This essential grant question can be answered with a few steps.
The culinary students have to plan a cooking show demonstration for a 2nd grade class in our small 3 school rural district.
With the demonstration we will use one of the electric fry pans, baking spatula, salad bowl, cutting boards, and the 3 note books for them to keep a record of the Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America’s meetings. These meeting will store the plans on how the community service project will be help and record the results after the event.
At the cooking and garnishing demonstration we will do several items for the children to taste and them we will present the class with an electric fry pan the teacher can use with the class, a book about a 2nd grade cook for each student, each will get a pencil, pen, and competition book, and a set of brushes for the students to use.
The students will also get to learn how to fold a restaurant napkin.
The storage cabinet is for the students to lock up their materials for the show as it is being set up, and all their student organization materials.
I have taught in the summer children from the ages of 5 to 14 for 6 years for the University of South Carolina. You can not imagine how young student react when they see food being made for them. All students like free supplies and we know that will be a success, and the fry pan can be use for their instructor do future things with them. The club storage cabinet will be used all year and for years to come for club projects.
With donors like you and the Donor’s Choice organization, I can complete areas of student training from that when I start the school year, reality set in, and I realized that with out help I could not achieve the things I wanted to get done at this school. I know I can not give my students the same experiences the larger districts give them, but I am out there every day trying to advance them and to launch them into a career position or help them in culinary school.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mr. Crompton and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.