That is where training programs like the Women's Housing & Economic Development Corporation in The Bronx, New York, and the Institute for Urban Research and Development's Vital Economic Neighborhood Development, or V.E.N.D, in Los Angeles enter the foodservice picture. Both nonprofit organizations have tapped public and private funding to provide training programs to low-skilled workers, teaching them the business and culinary tools they need to enter or re-enter the workforce.

WHEDCo co-founder and president Nancy Biberman created her agency 11 years ago, raising $25 million to renovate the former Morrisania Hospital in the South Bronx. The facility occupies an entire city block and includes apartments for the homeless and low-income families, a day-care center, a Head Start preschool and a 4,000-square-foot commercial kitchen.

The structure also houses the Urban Horizons Food Co., a catering company that until recently provided hands-on culinary training. But Biberman said she has had to put that business "on hiatus" because of funding cuts and the lack of job opportunities for her students in New York's post-Sept. 11, 2001, economy.

WHEDCo opened the catering company in 1992 because "we tried to focus on where we thought there would be entry-level opportunities. All signs pointed to the foodservice and hospitality industry," she said. Students went through an intensive, 12-week training program to prepare them for restaurant work.

"For the folks who went through our program, the culinary arts were the most transformative, and we do a lot of welfare-to-work training," she said.

While Urban Horizons was still in operation, Los Angeles chef Gary Arabia leased its kitchen space for his preparations for the 2002 Grammy Awards party, which he catered. Arabia, who owns Gary Arabia's Global Cuisine and The Lot, both in Los Angeles, also operates a catering company that has a full-time staff in Los Angeles but must seek out staff for out-of-town events.

Although Arabia expected to find only a usable kitchen at WHEDCo, he said he found a "great resource for all concerned" in the kitchen trainees.

In fact, Arabia was so impressed with trainee Hugo Cedillo that he hired him to work in Los Angeles. Cedillo is in training at The Lot, where he is learning to prepare the breakfast and lunch items and then will apprentice for the company's special-events division, Arabia said. Meanwhile, Arabia is organizing a fund-raiser to benefit WHEDCo and get Urban Horizons back on its feet, he added.

V.E.N.D. is another nonprofit program providing hands-on skills for entry-level foodservice workers through its Mama's Hot Tamales Café and its sidewalk vending carts. Participants in the program choose whether they want to learn restaurant or vending operational skills or both. The 50 vendors sell their foods back to the cafe, according to Sandra Romero-Plasencia, V.E.N.D.'s director of community outreach and education.

Romero-Plasencia said V.E.N.D. helps its participants navigate through city licensing procedures and finds financing through credit unions, if necessary, to pay for permits. "The idea is to start a small business," she said. The institute staff also assists with writing business plans and overcoming English-language hurdles.

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