Food bank matches Kraft grant challenge

ROBERT KRAFT, Patriots football team owner, center, and chef Heather Langlois, Community Kitchen director, far right, stand with students in Class 55 of the kitchen at the Rhode Island Community Food Bank on Dec. 16. Kraft recently offered a $100,000 challenge grant to the food bank kitchen, which runs a culinary job training program. / COURTESY CINDY ELDER
ROBERT KRAFT, Patriots football team owner, center, and chef Heather Langlois, Community Kitchen director, far right, stand with students in Class 55 of the kitchen at the Rhode Island Community Food Bank on Dec. 16. Kraft recently offered a $100,000 challenge grant to the food bank kitchen, which runs a culinary job training program. / COURTESY CINDY ELDER

PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island Community Food Bank recently matched a $100,000 challenge grant offered several months ago by Robert Kraft, chairman and CEO of New England Patriots ownership entity The Kraft Group.
The money will go toward the food bank’s Community Kitchen culinary job training program. Kraft met with some of the program’s students on Dec. 16.
The Community Kitchen enables low-income and unemployed adults to acquire skills and find jobs in the hospitality industry.
“Mr. Kraft has taken a personal interest in the students served by Community Kitchen,” says Andrew Schiff, food bank CEO. “His generous gift will help us to sustain this important program, and we are extremely impressed by his hands-on approach to philanthropy. It’s clear he cares about the organizations he supports.”
Full time, spanning 14 weeks at a time, the Community Kitchen prepares adult students for entry-level jobs in the restaurant and food service industry. Students learn basic cooking and food preparation skills, as well as life skills like interviewing and conflict resolution. The students also prepare meals for the food bank’s Kids Cafe meal sites, which serve children in high-need communities.
The food bank’s network of agencies serves more than 63,000 people every month, nearly twice as many as they were serving in 2007. One in three served by the food bank is a child younger than 18. For more information, visit www.rifoodbank.org.

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