Recently, the OH culinary classes have received almost $2,000 in supplies from the company Solina to benefit their competitions, students, and the OH Career and Technical Education (CTE) department as a whole.
Paul Grazzini, a culinary teacher who has taught the class for three years, came up with the idea with a childhood friend as they wanted a way to get more involved in the community.
“I think any donation… for any department is massive and … super advantageous to the students,” said Grazzini.
The culinary portion of the CTE Department mostly uses the student’s course fees for many items, like ingredients and simple things like gloves.
“Figuring out your curriculum throughout the semester can be challenging because of the pricing,” Grazzini said. “It’s great to be able to save money by someone else donating those things to us.”
The department holds statewide and national competitions for the upper level classes, so they make a lot of dishes that require many different ingredients, which is why Solina decided to donate to them.
With these donations, the students wouldn’t have to be funded over the weekend to buy the ingredients needed because they would be there, and money would be saved for important things.
“For me, they’re [going to] help me always have the products that I need to help me with my cooking,” said OH senior Katelyn Thilk, who earned third in the nation (a bronze medal) in the National Skills USA Baking and Pastry Arts Competition. “Because we are getting large amounts of the basics… It’s really nice to just have everything and not have to [run] out.”
The culinary portion of the CTE Department exudes excitement about the donations that were given, and Grazzini shared that the vision doesn’t end there.
“We want to build an internship program which funnels students after they graduate into the job force directly with them,” said Grazzini.
“[This] helps those students be more prepared for post secondary and potentially going to culinary school. So that’s why, to me, the whole thing is huge,” Grazzini said.
With Solina’s generous donation, funding supplies have been easier for the department, for example buying the basic necessities like flour and spices. It makes it easier for them to help the students learn and grow.
These donations help the department as a whole, and they also help the culinary students specifically, especially the ones who are willing to do this for their future. Culinary courses offer much more than just cooking and eating: students share that they offer memories, skills and many opportunities.
“I’m really excited, like, for the department overall because I think they could probably use [the money] So, yeah, that’s really cool,” said OH senior Roisin Hanna.
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