Mission

Project Feast is a nonprofit social enterprise with a mission to empower low-income refugees and immigrants in South King County to reach their goals by providing pathways to sustainable employment in the food industry and to be a platform for intercultural exchange within the broader community.

Organization and Programs

Project Feast was founded in early 2013 with the premise that refugee and immigrant cooks have valuable experiences and knowledge to contribute to our communities. The people we serve come from very diverse backgrounds from homemakers who have never worked outside of the home to those who were accountants in their countries. Their immigration experience is likewise diverse, from those forcibly displaced due to war or other conflict to those looking for better economic opportunities for themselves and their families while living in safety. Regardless, what they all have in common are many barriers including language, culture, access to education, access to financial and other resources, confidence, etc. While they each have different needs, they all have skills, especially cooking skills, and potential, often hidden. Our culinary apprenticeship program meets these needs and addresses these barriers. The culinary apprenticeship program has the following goals:

1. Provide a vocational workforce development program for refugee and immigrant cooks seeking to enter the food industry through our classes, café and catering. Graduates are prepared for prep and line cook positions in small restaurants or other food businesses.
2. Enable apprentices to play a key role in running our operation creating hands-on learning and practice and building purpose and ownership.
3. Build confidence and self-efficacy to enable apprentices to take charge of their lives and eventually help others in their community.

Project Feast’s Culinary Apprenticeship Program is five months, Monday through Friday. It is accredited through Highline College. Our classes offer foundational commercial kitchen skills, job readiness skills, kitchen vocabulary, customer service and menu design; and provide hands-on training for commercial kitchen jobs. Our catering program and café, Ubuntu Street Café, provides real-life experience for our apprentices. Both menus are created with recipes from our current and past refugee and immigrant cooks. Our program is further unique with a focus for apprentices to cultivate leadership skills and develop self-efficacy, increasing their ability to advocate for themselves. Lastly, each apprentice that maintains progress receives a scholarship of $500 a month. Upon success in the program, graduates will have hands-on experience in a U.S. commercial kitchen, an 18 credit Highline College certificate, and gained confidence. They will receive our support to obtain job placement or further schooling.

Project Feast’s Intercultural Exchange Programs aim to reduce racism and inequity by creating respectful entry points for Greater Seattle Area citizens who want opportunities to meet people from other countries, learn about their cultures, and participate in meaningful conversation. These relationships give our apprentices opportunities to become deeply integrated into local communities and economies. These events include:

• Migrating Meals: a monthly series featuring a different immigrant or refugee owned restaurant.
• Potluck for Peace: an initiative focusing on bringing people of all backgrounds together to share food from their home countries and engage in peace building dialogue.
• Pop-Up Dining: monthly events to showcase a different culture and cuisine.
• Our catering and café also serve as learning opportunities for our community.

Values

At Project Feast, we believe in a combination of strong individual leadership and ability to work effectively as a team within the staff as well as program participants. Our core values are as follows:

Community Driven

Project Feast participants and alumni help shape our future. We create space for refugee and immigrant community to take ownership of our programs and strategic vision.

Solution Oriented

We work together to overcome challenges and maintain a positive outlook. We strive to bounce back from adversity.

Do Our Best

We do our best and expect the same of other team members, participants, board, volunteers and partners.

Sustainability

We strive to achieve a healthy balance between social, financial and environmental sustainability.

The kitchen assistant is an important position at Project Feast’s café and catering. The kitchen assistant helps maintain our food business and train new apprentices while continuing to develop their communication and leadership skills in the kitchen. This position is a wonderful opportunity for someone who would like to grow. This role is currently part time and requires 20-25 hours a week. Depending on interest, there is a possibility to grow this to a full time position.

The kitchen assistant’s role includes the following responsibilities.

Helping train apprentices in the Project Feast culinary program

• Setting a good example of professional behavior including a positive attitude, arriving early every day, not using cell phones in the kitchen and wearing appropriate clothing in the kitchen
• Maintaining and enforcing the standards of cleanliness in the kitchen
• Showing good team work
• Caring about the progress of each apprentice
• Helping provide constructive feedback to apprentices
• Demonstrating food safety, including safe food handling, appropriate glove use, and correct sanitation practices.

Prep work

• Prep foods for café focusing on the lunch box
• Prep for catering events

Kitchen maintenance

• Be Person in Charge when Program Coordinator not present
• Close the kitchen every day
• All counters are cleaned
• Floor is swept and mopped
• Tables are wiped
• All dishes are done
• Counters are cleared and things are put away
• Garbage/recycle are taken out

Planning

• Help the program coordinator make weekly prep list for café and catering
• Help the program coordinator make weekly grocery list for café and catering
• Do grocery shopping for fresh ingredients (for ex. Hong Kong market)
• Share ideas on how we can save money or increase sales
• Help reduce food waste by planning ahead
• Work with the program coordinator to plan catering events

Catering Delivery

We would prefer to hire someone who has a car and can help with catering delivery. The pay will be higher for those able to fulfill this role.

• Pack food, serving dishes and marketing materials for catering events
• Deliver food to catering events
• Set up the food for the customer ensuring the display looks nice and is professional
• Provide event service if requested
• Clean hot boxes, hotel pans, chafing dishes and any other catering dishes
• Events are mostly in the afternoon or evening

Requirements

• Current food handler permit or commitment to obtaining one before starting date. A thorough understanding of safe food handling and kitchen hygiene.
• A minimum of 4 months of work experience in a commercial kitchen or successful completion of an intensive program like Project Feast Culinary Apprenticeship program
• Ability to read and speak in English. Writing preferred but not required.
• Ability to speak another language like Arabic, Spanish, Amharic etc. is preferred
• Strong interest in learning and growing your skills and leadership ability
• Able to lift 50 pounds
• Able to stay on feet for hours at a time
• Able to work between 8:30am and 3pm on weekdays
• Able to work some evenings with prior notice
• Reliable and consistent with a positive attitude
• Interest and respect for other cultures and cuisines

Compensation

• Starts at $13.50/hour
• The pay will be higher for those with more experience and the ability to help with catering delivery
• Free lunch every day
• Paid sick leave 
• Opportunities to learn and practice new skills
• Opportunity to grow this position into a full time position

Women of color, refugees, immigrants are highly encouraged to apply