The Western New York chapter of the New York State Restaurant Association is continuing their long standing commitment of helping culinary students. This year, they are introducing culinary passports.
The culinary passports will give you discounts to 24 different participating restaurants across Western New York up until December 31st of 2024. The funds made from the passports will go directly to the E2CCB Prostart Culinary Program in Angola.
The program is a specialized program that allows high school students the opportunity to study a trade along with their regular high school courses. Eden Native and Senior Chloe Mcray has been cooking since she was little and she is happy to be able to have a program like this available to her.
"It was amazing having this option and being able to learn as much as we are," Mcray said. "I love it."
The prostart program, the only one of its kind in Western New York, allows the students to put their culinary and management skills to the test through competitions. Eden Native and senior Annabelle Koscelak is the president of the prostart program. She leads the teams in the competitions.
"We go and compete in Poughkeepsie, New York and we pretty much make a plan about a restaurant," Koscelak said. "You have people of different levels and I think it's important that we all work together."
Both Chloe and Annabelle said the program allows them to gain skills they are going to use in for the rest of their careers. The hands-on practice helps the students experience real-life scenarios on both the culinary and management students. It's all that their instructor Sandy Kaleta wants them to get out of the program.
"It means a lot because I put a lot into this classroom," Kaleta said. "We do a lot of work but we have a lot of fun too. So I’m just trying to prep them for the real world."
The proceeds will help the E2CCB program with travel expenses to their competitions. There are 1000 of the passports available. The passports are $30. You can purchase them here or through the QR code below.
