Social Enterprise, or the Chaos of Cooking with Kids
I’ve had the good fortune for a lot of my career to work with young people of many age ranges. In most cases, this has been in the form of employees at the start of their hospitality careers, and I’ve blogged a few times about my take on leadership, coaching, and mentorship in more general terms. In my 8 years at Sheridan College’s Student Union, the vast majority of my staff (which was around 80 people every school year) were 18-25. When I moved back here and ran Co-op Place and the Esplanade for the City, that dropped to 15-20 for a huge majority (which was more like 120 people every year).
All this to say, I have plenty of experience with, well - inexperienced people. In some ways I actually prefer that. Obviously, experience is an asset and when people have it I like putting them in key roles. But, they can sometimes come with bad habits. Young, inexperienced people usually are much more malleable. I can show them the way I like things done, and why some of the details and finesse are important.
All of this has come in handy lately. Partially because basically most of my friends are teachers, and partially because I guess I’m getting a little more well-known in the city’s hospitality network, I’ve been asked to contribute to various social enterprises lately. This has taken many forms, and I want to go through them chronologically in brief:
For the past three years, I’ve been one of the judges in the SE Alberta Skills Canada Competition in the Culinary category. Unfortunately there is not enough interest by students and instructors this year to warrant a competition. Hopefully it will resume in 2027!
Beginning last year and continuing annually, I go out to Jenner School and chat with the Gr. 7-9 class about the industry and we cook a meal together in their kitchen. They then have a friendly competition between each other where myself and Jen are the judges, and it culminates with them visiting our restaurant and making a meal together in my kitchen.
Also starting last year and continuing annually, I do a similar presentation to the 5/6 classes at Dr. Ken Sauer School. They pitch dessert ideas to us, complete with creative writing descriptions (this is actually a language arts project) and we select a winner. That winner is featured as a dessert on the Hometown menu for a couple of weeks.
I’ve just begun contributing to a wide-ranging project involving two schools with students in the Sandford Crescent neighbourhood. More to come, but it’s going to be very cool and incorporate a photo journal and a few other very interactive community components.
I am also talking with Kickstand about a series of sessions with the teens who use that space centering on food safety, knife skills, and some cooking projects as well. Again, this one is new and developing but may evolve into something larger.
There are more than a few common threads running through all of these projects. Food security and making things interesting and fun while working within a budget, safety and refining skills, and the connection that food and meals can provide. It’s a chance to show the kids a bit about transferable skills that the foodservice world provides: team-building, organization, planning, collaboration, marketing, costing and business basics, customer service, conversationalism, phone and email communication skills, and the list goes on.
In the first Sandford session, we talked about the concept of the “family meal” in restaurants that we do daily at Hometown (and is common in the industry in my experience). These are kids too young to watch The Bear, but it happens there too. It’s a chance to relax and decompress after a busy service period. It sometimes sparks new ideas for features and eventually menu items, and it’s often when we don’t talk about work but rather about current events, personal things, or just share funny shit.
With Jenner and DKSS, there’s a competition aspect to it as well. Healthy, friendly, and respectful. And we spend a lot of time still learning. These things take a lot to facilitate. It’s no small feat to wrangle a group of kids to do this exciting thing with a stranger that disrupts routines and causes some administrative work for the schools. Plus the planning and communication we all put into scheduling, getting ingredients, and making sure we have something cohesive to put in front of the classes.
In both cases, there’s a beautiful, semi-organized chaos to the whole thing. I have to herd cats a bit, and no matter how thoroughly i THINK I plan, there’s always a curve ball. I’ve learned to work without a net just a bit, forcing me out of my usual uber-obsessive comfort zone. I think that equates to some kind of personal growth
I started this blog thinking it was going to be just a bland update. I haven’t posted on the site for a while, and I guess this is part of why. I’m also on the Library board, involved with the Downtown Voice group, and on the Chamber’s Community Connections Committee, which are all keeping me busy and engaged in the community in various ways. I try to make as many Council meetings as I can, and keep on top of what’s going on locally and provincially. Oh, and I’ll do some bartending for MHMT too (snap up POTUS tickets before they’re gone!)
All that to say, the themes of genuine community connection and lifelong learning are deeply important to me, as I signalled throughout the campaign. Those values don’t evaporate once the election is over, and I’m finding new avenues to put them to work. I may or may not go back to semi-regular updates on the site. But I’ll certainly keep exploring opportunities to engage meaningfully in our community.
It’s been a while. I hope you’re happy and fulfilled,,
- Adam
