RehobothFoodie.com / Touch of Italy Culinary Scholarship Fund
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Mission:
RehobothFoodie.com / Touch Of Italy Culinary Scholarship Fund is a Component Fund of the Greater Lewes Foundation focused on providing tuition assistance to qualified Delaware high school graduates who successfully complete the classroom/practical levels of DRA’s ProStart program and wish to further their education at accredited culinary schools.
Why did we start this?
New hires for restaurant kitchen duty are getting more and more difficult to find, and often the ones who do apply are not as skilled as they say they are. Applicants for upper-level positions that required certifiable experience, such as executive chef or general manager, are fewer and farther between. New hires sometimes didn’t make it through the season. And nowhere is this trend more obvious than in seasonal resort communities; none the least of which Delaware’s Cape Region.
Chefs and restaurant owners all agree on one thing: The love of food brings people together. With that in mind, it’s important that we continue to provide opportunities for those who love food and wish to turn their passion into a career, while also helping to alleviate the shortage of qualified kitchen personnel available to our Cape Region restaurants.
What better partner to work with than the Delaware Restaurant Association. They stepped up to the plate with the ProStart program; a nationwide, two-year industry-written curriculum for high school students that teaches culinary and management skills needed for an entry-level position in the restaurant and foodservice industry. A significant number of these students continue into nationally accredited culinary schools.
Scholarship Winners:
Kyle Garland: WorWic Community College 2021
Jayla Settles: CIA 2020
Lauren Powers: CIA 2019
Luis Fermin: WorWic Community College 2018
Morgan Fitzhugh: CIA 2022
Ellie Keck: Cluniary Center (NY) 2019
Brent Hillard: CIA 2016
Damien Cook: Johnson & Wales R.I. 2018
Zosia Jeffrey: Johnson & Wales, RI 2017
Jalil Cowan: The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College 2016
Fatima Flores: Johnson & Wales, Charlotte, NC 2017
Beatriz Balderas-Ramirez: CIA 2017
Veronica Cojocaru: DelTech 2020
