Racheal (she/her) took her first steps toward a culinary career four years ago, when the case worker supporting her through a low point in life referred her to FareStart. She wanted to be ready but wasn’t. She was struggling with too much, so she hit pause to focus on her mental health, set on returning when the time was right.
The second time around, Racheal was ready. After years of working in the delivery business, she joined our Food Pathways Program last fall, eager to pursue the career she’d been dreaming about since she was a kid.
“My mom always told me to take it a step at a time,” Racheal recalled. “She was like, ‘If cooking is what you love the most, that’s what you need to focus on.’”
Rachael has loved to cook ever since she made spaghetti for the first time when she was eight years old. She knew her confidence in the kitchen would serve her well. As she went through the program, she learned there’s a lot more to FareStart than honing top-notch kitchen skills.
For the first month, classes focused on foundational life skills that help students show up with an appreciation of the person they are today and a vision of the professional they want to become. They learn to look inward, to identify and be curious about their strengths and the challenges they’re overcoming.
In class, “We had the time to feed off of each other and get into some real, real deep subjects,” Rachael said. “We learned stuff like grateful people live longer and are healthier — things I never thought about before but now think about all the time.”
The more Racheal learned, the more she sensed her confidence growing, both in and out of the kitchen. Her trainers helped her see that her classmates looked to her as a leader. They saw strengths in her that she didn’t realize she had.
“They called out my good attributes — being vibrant, having urgency, being resilient, determined, level-headed,” Racheal said. “Those are all things I always wanted to be and I didn’t even see in myself. They brought out the good in me and they saw me for who I am — who I actually am.”
Throughout her training, FareStart kept Racheal connected with counseling, which helped her feel a steady sense of progress toward an empowered and positive outlook on her future. Her case manager made sure Racheal knew that if she ever needed anything — emergency food, gift cards, transportation assistance, anything — all she had to do was ask.
Every chef Racheal has worked with sings her praises and is rooting for her as she applies for jobs, including renowned chef and longtime FareStart supporter Ethan Stowell, whom she worked alongside at a Guest Chef Night late last year.
“We made pasta that was fire!” she recalled. “One with a red sauce and sausage, one with a white sauce. Both were delicious.”
She’s grateful for the support and other ways FareStart is helping her put her best foot forward in her job search. And she’s confident that someday, she’ll be able to tip her chef’s hat to everyone she worked with at FareStart as she makes her dream job a reality: running her own food truck.
“Oh, yeah. I’m gonna be on FareStart’s walls, baby!” she exclaimed. “They’re going to be like, ‘Can you come and speak to our students?’ Of course, I will!”
Learn about more FareStart’s job training programs and ways to get involved as a volunteer, by giving, or supporting our social enterprises.
