Like many students, my road to Second Helpings was a long one. After 30 years in California, I found myself in a new city, the “Crossroads of America,” facing a crossroads of my own. Searching for my purpose, I discovered Second Helpings through an Ivy Tech student who attended the
Culinary Job Training Program and encouraged me to apply.
I arrived at Second Helpings in 2006 like so many students: seeking a second chance and a new career. The program was intense, demanding and transformative. At Second Helpings, I found staff and volunteers who openly and warmly welcomed each student and provided help and encouragement as we tackled new challenges and approached a new future. It was more than I could have hoped. It was everything I needed.
After graduating, I was chosen to start a new restaurant in Zionsville as head chef at Plum’s Upper Room. From there, I served four years as a sous chef for the Colts, under executive chef and fellow Second Helpings graduate Dewitt Jackson. I have also enjoyed opportunities in the kitchens at J.W. Marriott and Eskenazi Health. Each of these experiences would have proven impossible without my Second Helpings training.
Earlier this year, I learned of the changes taking place in Second Helpings’ Culinary Job Training Program under Chef Vincent Kinkade. The program was being streamlined, shrinking from 10-weeks to two 7-week classes running concurrently. To do all of this, Second Helpings needed a second culinary instructor. I jumped at the opportunity. I always knew I would return home to the place where I found myself.
The transformation of the culinary job training program represents a significant investment by Second Helpings. Changes needed to be made to the culinary job training kitchen to accommodate two classes, and more students also meant more costs for books and materials. All in all, the cost of the program has increased by 50%, but with this investment we’re doubling our impact: twice as many students will be served and twice as many people can transform their lives and their futures. That’s twice the number of families you will restore and rejuvenate through your generosity.
As an instructor at Second Helpings, I have seen a deaf student work alongside her interpreter and develop into one of the best students in her class. I have watched a seamstress from Mexico, with no culinary background, break through her language barrier and win almost every award we offer. I have witnessed convicted felons blossom into critical team members and reclaim a sense of dignity that their own decisions and the prison system stripped from them. I have watched heroin addicts choose life over death. I have seen more lives transformed through yourgenerosity than I can count – all of this in a mere seven months.
Where a job training class once graduated every three months, a new class now graduates monthly. The healthcare and hospitality industries continue to offer a high demand for skilled foodservice professionals, and our graduates are well-prepared for those roles.
In just a few months, we’ve already seen significant, positive results. Student retention rates are higher than ever before – not because the class is any easier. In many ways it is more demanding. Incoming students now see the class ahead of them already at work in the training kitchen. Through the windows of the job training classroom they have a glimpse into their own futures. Just a few weeks later, those classes work side-by-side with the more “senior” students mentoring and guiding the newer class through their first kitchen exercises. Students teaching other students as together they build skills, confidence and self-sufficiency. This is a first at Second Helpings, and it is powerful to behold.
I love helping people get a new start through learning the basics of cooking, and I have always wanted to give back to other students in the way that Second Helpings gave to me. This is my calling, but I can’t do this work without your support and commitment. Your gift of $500 provides a student with uniforms, transportation and materials for this course, just $100 will outfit a student with the professional knives and tools required to carve out a new future, $1,250 will bring critical life skills and career skills training to an entire class for one day.
Today, Second Helpings graduates are preparing dinner for your family on your night out. They’re feeding the athletes that make Indy the greatest sports town in the world. They’re working in the kitchens that have revolutionized this city’s reputation into a nationally recognized culinary destination. Indy restaurants rely on our graduates, because they know our students will exceed their demands. They know that our graduates have solid skills and are hungry to learn more. They know that our graduates appreciate the opportunity that a job represents.
As you know, Second Helpings cannot exist without your ongoing financial support. By increasing your annual contribution by 50%, you can help double the number of unemployed adults who can overcome their barriers to build a better future for themselves and their families. Your gift can also support our Hunger Relief program where every dollar provides one of thousands of hot, nutritious meals that Second Helpings provides to children, seniors and families in need throughout Central Indiana each day.
You can help many more people become self-sufficient, productive citizens. You will transform lives and confront the vicious cycle of poverty that holds so many families hostage. Poverty isn’t a number. It’s personal, and you have the opportunity to close the gap between the self-sufficient and the forgotten.
If you’ve already made your year-end gift, thank you. If not, please consider a generous donation to Second Helpings today. Your generosity has already transformed my life. Imagine how many lives will be touched by your gift today.
Proud Second Helpings graduate,
Scott G. Lawson