NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WKBW) — People come from around the world to cross Niagara Falls off their bucket list.
After enjoying the view, they can enjoy some barbecue chicken and a cold lavender lemonade, made by some high school students from Niagara Falls.
"It's usually a lot of crazy, fun reactions, like you're only 17?" said Saquan Mitchell, one of the student chefs.
Mitchell has been working with Chef Bobby Anderson for three years now. This is his first job opportunity at BBQ and Sunshine, their food truck on Rainbow Boulevard.
"So I take the kids from middle school, high school, train them in middle school, high school, give them these soft skills and on-the-job training and they hit Niagara Falls," said Anderson.
Davon Wade has been working with Chef Bobby since he was a 7th grader, he's now 19.
"Having chef Bobby in our life is a blessing because you don't see many Black adults and Black chefs around here that really care about the youth," said Wade.
We first caught up with Chef Bobby with his student-run Starbucks, then saw him in the classroom teaching students these skills, now they're using them, hard at work.
Chef Bobby says it's important to him that these kids are getting paid and getting exposure, meeting people from all over the world at the food truck, F-Bites Cantina and Cataract House on Rainbow Boulevard as well.
"Niagara Falls, it's a...a little crazy," said Mitchell. "So it helps us get a lot of discipline and it also teaches us life skills, how to cook, how to be organized."
The hope is also to prepare them for the future, helping to pay for their tuition for future programs.
Saquan's dream is to be a chef. Davon's dream is to give back to his community.
"I want to help the youth out, I feel like I have a big impact on the youth, I want to motivate the youth to do better and stay out the streets," said Wade.
And it's not just students, F-Bites works with Erie and Niagara County with re-entry programs to prepare incarcerated individuals for careers in culinary fields.
As a non-profit, all this work is done through the help of donations, you can support F-Bites by clicking here.
