5 minute read
Why Life’s Kitchen’s Mission Matters Now More Than Ever
BY APRIL NEALE
Reagan Overgaard’s world was at a standstill until she learned about Life’s Kitchen.
The Boise resident was seeking to get her GED. Then, in 2021 and by chance, a teacher told her about the local nonprofit program, Life’s Kitchen, that teaches opportunity-seeking youth ages 16 to 24 how to navigate the adult world with a marketable set of skills to help break cycles of poverty and homelessness.
Overgaard was drifting, and she knew it. “I was already planning on pursuing my GED,” she tells us inside the Fairview-located gem, Rory’s Cafe, a nonprofit restaurant that turns out addictive grilled cheeses, burgers, homemade soups, and killer eggs Benedict. “I went to my career counselor at Eagle Academy. And I asked her, is there any place that could help me get my GED? I don’t know where to go. So she showed me a pamphlet for Life’s Kitchen, and then I ended up coming for a tour, and as I walked through here, I thought, ‘I want to do this.’”
Upon her spring 2022 graduation, Overgaard learned skills as a baker, which led to an excellent position at Deja Brew Laugh A Latte in Meridian, thanks to her Life’s Kitchen teacher, Chef Kyle Swanbeck.
As Overgaard says, “Chef Kyle helped me get a job at Deja Brew. He referred me. I’m going to be their baker, and I think they’re going to cross-train me to help me learn all kitchen positions to further my training, but initially, I’ll be focused on baking.”
Reagan Overgaard is moving forward at Life’s Kitchen
Courtesy Life's Kitchen
Founded in 2003 by local restaurateur Rory Farrow, Life’s Kitchen has helped over 750 kids with circumstances similar to Reagan’s acquire their GEDs and learn how to become skilled workers through its four-month zero-cost internship program. At the culinary training facility, participants ages 16 to 24 immerse in a ladder-like series of life and social skills and confidence-building sessions, where studies for GED classes coincide with knife skills, plating, food safety classes, and meal preparations.
Tammy Johnson, the program’s Executive Director says, “[Life’s Kitchen founder] Rory Farrow, a restaurant owner, found that many young adults were coming to work for her without the basic work or life skills. And many of our Program trainees have dropped out of school, live at or below the poverty level, experience homelessness, or were referred to us by the juvenile justice system. Here, they can access the educational resources and learning opportunities that they need to live independently.”
It takes a village of chef trainers and staff to get the 16 trainees ready to take on the job market here in Idaho and beyond. As Johnson explains, “Currently, we have 10 full-time staff and 16 trainees in the program. We’re a social enterprise, meaning that our businesses, such as café, catering, and our contracts, help support the program financially and provide the much-needed workforce development for our trainees. About 53% of the program costs come from that [cafe and catering] revenue.”
There’s tremendous goodwill overlap— not only from other nonprofits like Allumbaugh House and Interfaith Sanctuary, that reap the largesse of Life’s Kitchen’s delivered prepared meals, over two million served and counting—but also from local businesses that actively support and provide valuable machines and equipment for the trainees to learn and prepare food and drink items that earn revenue as well.
“We provide over 1,000 meals per week free to Interfaith Sanctuary, thanks to so many great supporters, Caffe D’Arte, Simplot, Hayden Beverage Company, Shamrock Foods, The Idaho Foodbank, Idaho Power, and more,” adds Johnson. “These partnerships are vital and have a daily impact on our ability to serve our trainees and mission. Without the partnerships mentioned, plusother corporate and foundation grants and individual support, it would be difficult to have such an impact on our young adults continually.”
Experienced chefs are always encouraged to enquire about training the kids at Life’s Kitchen. Johnson says, “They can reach out to Life’s Kitchen for teaching opportunities. We have Guest Chef Mondays, where chefs from the local community come to the facility and provide a culinary experience for our trainees. The professional chefs do donate their time.”
As graduation day approached for Reagan, she took part in the signature dish challenge. Johnson says, “On the last week of their program, trainees work on a signature dish of their choice. Reagan’s was a spicy tuna stuffed rice ball and marinated cucumber salad.”
Creative approaches when it comes to baking are where Reagan’s passions are. She told us that incorporating fresh herbs as garnishes or ingredients was a twist for traditionally sweet baked goods. Noting her fascination with seeing how chefs reinvent baked good classics, Reagan says, “I like to look at other people’s ideas and then tweak them and add my ideas. For example, I made an Earl Grey cake with a honey cream cheese frosting, and then I topped it off with fresh thyme and lavender to decorate it, and it turned out nicely.” Johnson adds, “Reagan’s shortbread cookies with her twist of a thyme sprig were delicious.”
Reagan making her famous shortbread cookies.
COURTESY LIFE’S KITCHEN
As for her four months spent at Life’s Kitchen, Overgaard wanted people to know what the entire experience meant to her. She says, “I would recommend Life’s Kitchen to anyone, even if they’ve completed high school. It’s a great place to come and learn those skills you need to know as an adult because even in high school, I wasn’t learning about the things that I’ve learned here, like taxes, finances, and how to rent an apartment. So anyone struggling with completing high school should do this program.”
Life’s Kitchen
8574 W Fairview Ave, Boise, ID 83704
Rory’s Cafe is open to the public M-F 7 AM-2 PM daily
www.lifeskitchen.org/how-to-apply
