Culinary Education Foundation wins CIDA grant for innovative training program
February 5, 2004 | 12:00am
Rebecca Opilas used to sell turon from her house in a depressed area inside a subdivision in Quezon City. Her meager earnings from the small business seemed hardly enough to cover her daily needs.
"Pero ngayon, malaking pagbabago sa buhay ko!" she says. "Sa La Vista at Loyola Grand Villas, hanggang Greenhills, tinatawagan akong magluto."
She expanded her turon business and started catering to private homes after she participated in the Culinary Education Foundation’s (CEF) "Super Manang," an outreach livelihood program intended to develop the basic culinary skills of women in depressed areas.
"The Culinary Education Foundation (CEF) is a non-profit organization born out of a lifelong dream of Center for Culinary Arts, Manila (CCA) founder and president Susana Pascual-Guerrero to provide culinary training to deserving individuals for a better life," explains CEF executive director Rose Therese "Rosette" Yupangco. "We are dedicated to our motto: Teach them to cook. Feed them for a lifetime."
At the First World Bank Philippine Development Innovation Marketplace, entitled "Panibagong Paraan: Making Services Work for the Poor," held recently at the Megatrade Hall at the SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City, the CEF won the Canadian International Development Agency-sponsored award for the Culinary Training Program (CTP), its project entry.
"The CTP is an expansion of the CEF "Super Manang" livelihood program and the CEF Work Appreciation Program, a lecture and on-the-job training program for young girls," Yupangco explains. "Using lessons learned from both projects, we formulated the CTP, a dual training program that aims to develop the culinary skills of out-of-school youths for a consistent and sustainable livelihood in the food and beverage industry. The participants will undergo three months’ training under instructors from the Center for Culinary Arts, Manila, which they will complete in an on-the-job training in the various partner restaurants and hotels in Metro Manila, which may also opt to hire them after they complete the program. With the assistance of the Culinary Education Foundation, those who complete the Culinary Training Program will get the opportunity to find jobs in the food and hospitality industry."
In his remarks at the opening ceremonies, World Bank Philippines country director Robert Vance Pulley described "Panibagong Paraan" as "a unique bazaar of innovative ideas."
Pulley said, "How inspiring and encouraging it is to see people from civil society organizations from Abra to Tawi-Tawi come together to help solve complex and difficult problems and spur innovative solutions during these challenging times. It is doubly inspiring because these proponents choose to offer solutions when it is much easier to fret and just complain about the problems of making services work for the poor."
From 1,800 entries, 117 finalists were selected for their innovativeness, impact and cost effectiveness, sustainability and replicability. The entries represented a diverse mix of project proposals, ranging from agricultural and rural development to biodiversity and climate change to community-driven development, as well as enterprise development. The jurors interviewed the finalists and visited the exhibit booths set up for the two-day event at the SM Megatrade Hall. Partners and donors also set up their booths. It provided an opportunity for the participants not only for collaboration and networking with potential sponsors but also for knowledge-sharing among themselves.
A total of 50 winners, of which 15 were special category winners, were chosen to receive funding from the World Bank and its donor partners to help them implement their innovative development ideas.
"The grant is the first CEF has received from a development funding agency," Yupangco reveals. "The CIDA is known to fund pilot and out-of-the box proposals. I was told that they found CEF’s CTP program quite unusual and it held a high potential for impact and sustainability."
"There are different dual training programs available. However, most develop skills in computer and maritime application," she observes. "CTP will widen the options available for a specific and direct intervention in addressing out-of-school youth unemployment and low productivity. CTP is flexible enough to give them the opportunity to begin a career in the food industry – be it as an employee or as an entrepreneur. The food and hospitality industry is heavily labor-intensive and needs appropriately skilled manpower that meets international standards of service. It promotes productivity that eventually helps boost the economy."
With the growing cynicism and seeming sense of despair in our country these days, projects such as CEF’s Culinary Training Program gives us hope. "What we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope," the 19th century British novelist George Eliot wrote.
At the closing ceremonies of the First Philippine Development Innovation Marketplace, special guest of honor, former President Corazon C. Aquino, remarked, "Right here in this very hall is a marvelous collection of great work that creates hope in every person these organizations help on a daily basis. Theirs is about more work and less talk; more of finding solutions together than shouting slogans. Each and everyone of them, as well as others like them in other parts of our country deserve to be awarded for these groups did not wait for anyone to lead them. They did it themselves."
For inquiries regarding the Culinary Education Foundation’s Culinary Training Program, call Rosette Yupangco at 426-4837 local 203 or 928-8167.
"Pero ngayon, malaking pagbabago sa buhay ko!" she says. "Sa La Vista at Loyola Grand Villas, hanggang Greenhills, tinatawagan akong magluto."
She expanded her turon business and started catering to private homes after she participated in the Culinary Education Foundation’s (CEF) "Super Manang," an outreach livelihood program intended to develop the basic culinary skills of women in depressed areas.
"The Culinary Education Foundation (CEF) is a non-profit organization born out of a lifelong dream of Center for Culinary Arts, Manila (CCA) founder and president Susana Pascual-Guerrero to provide culinary training to deserving individuals for a better life," explains CEF executive director Rose Therese "Rosette" Yupangco. "We are dedicated to our motto: Teach them to cook. Feed them for a lifetime."
At the First World Bank Philippine Development Innovation Marketplace, entitled "Panibagong Paraan: Making Services Work for the Poor," held recently at the Megatrade Hall at the SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City, the CEF won the Canadian International Development Agency-sponsored award for the Culinary Training Program (CTP), its project entry.
"The CTP is an expansion of the CEF "Super Manang" livelihood program and the CEF Work Appreciation Program, a lecture and on-the-job training program for young girls," Yupangco explains. "Using lessons learned from both projects, we formulated the CTP, a dual training program that aims to develop the culinary skills of out-of-school youths for a consistent and sustainable livelihood in the food and beverage industry. The participants will undergo three months’ training under instructors from the Center for Culinary Arts, Manila, which they will complete in an on-the-job training in the various partner restaurants and hotels in Metro Manila, which may also opt to hire them after they complete the program. With the assistance of the Culinary Education Foundation, those who complete the Culinary Training Program will get the opportunity to find jobs in the food and hospitality industry."
In his remarks at the opening ceremonies, World Bank Philippines country director Robert Vance Pulley described "Panibagong Paraan" as "a unique bazaar of innovative ideas."
Pulley said, "How inspiring and encouraging it is to see people from civil society organizations from Abra to Tawi-Tawi come together to help solve complex and difficult problems and spur innovative solutions during these challenging times. It is doubly inspiring because these proponents choose to offer solutions when it is much easier to fret and just complain about the problems of making services work for the poor."
From 1,800 entries, 117 finalists were selected for their innovativeness, impact and cost effectiveness, sustainability and replicability. The entries represented a diverse mix of project proposals, ranging from agricultural and rural development to biodiversity and climate change to community-driven development, as well as enterprise development. The jurors interviewed the finalists and visited the exhibit booths set up for the two-day event at the SM Megatrade Hall. Partners and donors also set up their booths. It provided an opportunity for the participants not only for collaboration and networking with potential sponsors but also for knowledge-sharing among themselves.
A total of 50 winners, of which 15 were special category winners, were chosen to receive funding from the World Bank and its donor partners to help them implement their innovative development ideas.
"The grant is the first CEF has received from a development funding agency," Yupangco reveals. "The CIDA is known to fund pilot and out-of-the box proposals. I was told that they found CEF’s CTP program quite unusual and it held a high potential for impact and sustainability."
"There are different dual training programs available. However, most develop skills in computer and maritime application," she observes. "CTP will widen the options available for a specific and direct intervention in addressing out-of-school youth unemployment and low productivity. CTP is flexible enough to give them the opportunity to begin a career in the food industry – be it as an employee or as an entrepreneur. The food and hospitality industry is heavily labor-intensive and needs appropriately skilled manpower that meets international standards of service. It promotes productivity that eventually helps boost the economy."
With the growing cynicism and seeming sense of despair in our country these days, projects such as CEF’s Culinary Training Program gives us hope. "What we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope," the 19th century British novelist George Eliot wrote.
At the closing ceremonies of the First Philippine Development Innovation Marketplace, special guest of honor, former President Corazon C. Aquino, remarked, "Right here in this very hall is a marvelous collection of great work that creates hope in every person these organizations help on a daily basis. Theirs is about more work and less talk; more of finding solutions together than shouting slogans. Each and everyone of them, as well as others like them in other parts of our country deserve to be awarded for these groups did not wait for anyone to lead them. They did it themselves."
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