CORNWALL, Ontario – The Hospitality and Tourism Specialist High Skills Major Program (SHSM) at St. Matthew Catholic Secondary School, has grown again. Recently, to reach the general public and to give students real-world experience, the Hospitality and Tourism students have launched Freshca – a student run catering business that provides healthy, family style meals at a reasonable price.
Students participating in the Freshca business venture benefit from hands-on learning, which helps to maintain a sustainable program. Students prepare, portion, package, and sell delicious meals-to-go. Since the Freshca Facebook page was created, the business has become extremely successful, giving students the opportunity to cook daily to keep up with the growing number of food orders.
Owen Ryan, who came to St. Matthew CSS in grade 11, believes that this program is helping him gain practical culinary arts skills and business savvy. “I prefer this cooking program over other programs I’ve participated in at other schools. I like that we get to cook every day.”
Freshca also offers seasonal items, holiday specials, and canned goods. For the upcoming holiday season, an array of baked goods and desserts will be for sale on the Freshca Facebook page. Items will feature the programs famous pumpkin rolls, sugar pies and chocolate chip cookies, in addition to some holiday favourites, like pecan pie and gingerbread cookies.
All Hospitality SHSM students at St. Matthew are trained and certified in industry standard credentials, such as Safe Food Handling, Smart Serve, Customer Service, First Aid, CPR level C, and WHMIS. In addition, students participate in a Dual-Credit program through Algonquin College’s Culinary Arts Program which is delivered by a Culinary Arts Professor at St. Matthew, in the Hospitality suite. Collectively, the students learn industry standards and techniques throughout their time at St. Matthew, and upon high school graduation, are often sought after by local employers.
Last year, students began participating in cooking competitions throughout Eastern Ontario. The experience has proven to be very challenging, and the quick thinking required often mimics real-world industry pressures.
Cynthia Lovejoy, one of the school’s top contenders and winner of multiple competitions last year, noted the benefits of competing. “This program helped me learn about food and techniques, and then the cooking competition challenged me further. I think cooking in a competition would be a lot like the first day of work at a restaurant – I was nervous, and felt challenged, but it was very rewarding.”
Students will participate in an upcoming Christmas Cookie Competition and Master Chef competition, both being held at St. Matthew Catholic Secondary School.
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