April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
CULINARY PROGRAM
HELP WANTED: Schuyler Inn gives future cooks a second chance
"He's the only one who gives us a chance," Mr. Samuel said of the octogenarian Albany priest, who advocates for ex-convicts, the homeless and the addicted throughout New York State.
Mr. Samuel is halfway through a 12-week culinary arts education program at the Schuyler Inn in Menands, an arm of the 53-year-old Peter Young Housing, Industry and Treatment program (PYHIT).
The student has cooked professionally in several kitchens, including one in a 500-bed ARC residence in Manhattan - but he's recently struggled to find work after incarceration for grand larceny and a bank robbery.
Employers will "let me wash pots all day long," but not cook, Mr. Samuel said.
Through the Schuyler Inn, he's learning about kitchen sanitation, recipe conversion and "why I'm doing what I'm doing.
Banning bad habits
"They basically just got me out of all the bad [cooking] habits I've been in," he said. "I'm hoping to get the certificate from here, because that proves that I know what I know."
Mr. Samuel has also gone through the treatment and housing programs of PYHIT, which serves about 5,000 clients a night at 90 residential sites throughout the state. About 80 clients a day seek job training at an office in Albany's South End; about 30 of them usually receive employment within a month. That office also offers career and life skills classes that prepare individuals for job interviews, resume writing and money management.
PYHIT operates state-licensed vocational programs in hospitality, culinary arts and custodial and maintenance work, as well as county-approved work experience periods. The Schuyler Inn, previously occupied by several different hotel chains, was purchased in 1994 to house some of these programs.
About 140 rooms at the inn are available for needy families, homeless veterans and individuals recovering from addiction, incarceration or other struggles. Volunteers mentor Schuyler Inn residents and run activities for their children.
The goal is to put clients in a safe environment, feed them three balanced meals a day and eventually "create a sustainable taxpayer, to give people the dignity of a paycheck," said Peter Kelsey, director of the Schuyler Inn and a PYHIT staffer for 29 years.
Many students reunite with their families, find jobs cleaning or cooking, or work their way up to managerial jobs at hotels, Mr. Kelsey said. "When someone comes up to me and holds up that paystub, that's the kick for me."
Culinary program
Mashama Burns, one of the Schuyler Inn's 17 paid staff members, is the executive chef and culinary instructor. Her students learn in 12-week or six-week sessions about health regulations, knife skills, culinary math, terminology and equipment, fabrication of meat and more. The list and stay used to be longer - and the students used to receive stipends - before funding was cut.
But Mrs. Burns' students, most of whom are around age 35, still cook three meals a day for Schuyler Inn residents and work a weekly dinner for the public, banquets accommodating up to 300 people and off-site catering.
Mrs. Burns also certifies managers in sanitation at Father Young's seven cafeterias in the Albany Diocese. Her curriculum is audited annually by the New York State Education Department.
"Some people think that cooking is just cooking," said Mrs. Burns, who has two to 20 students at any given time. "It's so much more. When [people] go out to eat, we're expecting to be treated like kings and queens."
Still, the most important lessons she teaches have "nothing to do with the culinary. I want to give them as much information to make them as marketable as I can."
This includes tips on social skills, following directions, punctuality and avoiding fraternizing with customers.
End result
That often pays off: Graduates work at supermarket delis, high-end hotels, restaurants and residences.
"I've had students say to me, 'My mother or grandmother told me I'm never going to be anything,'" Mrs. Burns recalled, adding that her proudest moments are "just seeing people wake up and realize they can do things and they can be a good person.
"I don't know who fed you these negative things, but you don't have to listen to it," she tells her students.
"We become a family around here," she said. "Everyone kind of gets to know each other and come to depend on each other. I've had a lot of guys come into the office and just cry. I always say, my door's open."
Being from Arbor Hill, the same neighborhood as many of her students, makes her relatable. She also understands struggle, having had her first child at the age of 16 and feeling unsatisfied with work at an insurance company until she earned degrees in culinary arts and hotel/restaurant management in 1999. She's been in her current position since 2005.
"Sometimes I see people and their spirit just seems to be broken," Mrs. Burns said. "I listen. I'm the big listener."
Seeing students relapse hurts her, but she said the success stories outweigh the negatives.
Planning ahead
Mr. Samuel, one of two students studying under Mrs. Burns currently, described the program as "work and school together. It's not a cakewalk here. You have to want this."
The 44-year-old studied to be a Christian minister during his last incarceration and hopes to be a youth minister at Christian Memorial Church of God in Christ in Albany when he gets back on his feet - hopefully, as a cook in a residential home.
Originally from Queens, he now lives in an apartment in Albany and cares for his mother.
"I started changing in prison. This is just part of my change process," Mr. Samuel said of PYHIT programs. "It gives [clients] a chance to change - a chance to become who they really are, and not what they've been acting like their whole lives."[[In-content Ad]]
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