Georgian College culinary students prepare holiday meals for unhoused people

The festive spirit was in the air at Georgian College last week, as dozens of Culinary Management students and instructors packaged more than 300 turkey dinners with all the fixings to donate to several local organizations serving the unhoused.

The ready-to-heat festive meals – turkey, mashed potatoes, vegetables, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, bread roll and berry crumble – were delivered to the Busby Centre, Elizabeth Fry Society Simcoe Muskoka, and a few other local organizations.

“It means a lot to me to help everyone,” said Skylar Reid-Shepherd, a culinary student who participated in this year’s festive meal preparation. “My mom always says to help everyone in need, and I think that’s very important, and it makes me feel good.”

A person wearing a chief's uniform and hat stands in a kitchen and cuts slices of turkey.
Akhil Ghadiyali, a Culinary Management student, helps slice turkey for more than 300 meals.
A person wearing a chef's uniform and hat in a kitchen dishes out vegetables into individual containers.
Fabiane Camara, a Culinary Management student, on vegetable duty.

20 years of charitable work to support local shelters

Georgian has been preparing holiday meals in this annual tradition for about 20 years and made the initiative part of the Culinary Management curriculum to meet a community service learning outcome.

“We started doing this just because we wanted to give back to the community. We’ve carried that on ever since,” said Chef Philip Leach, coordinator of Georgian’s culinary programs.

Four people wearing chef's uniforms and hats put items into brown paper bags in a kitchen.
Culinary Management students, including Skylar Reid-Shepherd, right, package cutlery and other items to go with the meals.

All the food, the majority of which was donated by generous suppliers, was prepared in the last two weeks of classes of the semester:

  • 300 pounds of turkey,
  • 32 litres of gravy,
  • 40 loaves of bread,  
  • 50 lbs of onions,
  • 150 lbs of vegetables, and
  • six cases of frozen berries.

Georgian’s grateful to its sponsors for helping make this meaningful learning experience happen: Central Supply Solutions, Stewart Food Service, A.J. Lanzarotta Wholesale Fruit & Vegetables Ltd., The Butcher Shoppe and Gordon Food Services.

A person wearing a chief's uniform reaches out to add stuffing into individual meal containers.
Hoon Lee, a Culinary Management student, prepares holiday meals.

“This is a great community learning experience, plus it creates awareness of what services are around in Barrie,” said Leach. “We hope the students get a good sense of the community and being integrated into a community. They’re giving back to make sure everybody gets a holiday meal this year.”

Learn more about Georgian’s Hospitality, Tourism and Recreation programs

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