Started in 2013, End Hunger’s food and culinary program offers a free eight-week jobs training course to 15 people who are at-risk or are low-income people who need some life coaching. The training program is sponsored by the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, PNC Bank and Chesapeake Church in Huntingtown, where the training takes place. They pay for tuition, uniforms and books for each student. After four sessions of the program (a fifth one started in March 2015), 70 percent of the graduates have jobs in the food service business.
Created with the vision of bringing quality and sustainable employment opportunities to underemployed or unemployed residents of Calvert County, the program offers the practical training needed for successful re-entry into the workforce. Students must be at least 18 years old, have a high school diploma or GED, and have a valid driver’s license or access to reliable transportation. Graduates receive a ServSafe National Restaurant Association Certification, free career placement assistance and their own set of knives.
Each class is different, says Miller, and presents different challenges depending on the needs and personalities of the students. The biggest thing Miller and the five other employees have had to learn is to be flexible. Many of the students have an “aha” moment after dealing with Caroline Allie, the program instructor, in their culinary training. Miller says Allie’s “fantastic with them. She’s stern, but someone they realize they can rely on. She only wants to make them better. She teaches them the value of everything.”
What has pleased all involved is how appreciative the students are. A couple of students speak at each graduation, telling of their journeys. One student had been a food pantry client for six years, relying on it to make ends meet over and above the pop-up jobs where he worked. He’s now working behind the meat counter, serving customers at Nick’s of Calvert in Prince Frederick.
Besides the training program, End Hunger in Calvert County collects and distributes food to partner food pantries throughout the county, in addition to offering various programs designed to help people move from dependency to self-sufficiency.
The easiest way to help the organization is to donate funds, knowing that “when you give where you live, it stays where you live.” Miller says that their purchasing power buys 1,000 pounds of food for $100. And when you make purchases at one of nearly two dozen restaurants and shops, you’re supporting that business’s participation in the food and culinary training program, which can be as a guest instructor, a home for an internship, or a place of employment for one or more graduates. They include: Anne Arundel Medical Center, Asbury Solomons, Blondie’s Baking Company, Countryside Grille and Deli, Dream Weaver Cafe & Catering, Filomenas, The Greene Turtle, Herrington Harbor/Honey’s Harvest, Jerry’s Place, JT’s Kitchen, Maryland Country Caterers, Nick’s of Calvert, No Thyme to Cook, Outback Steakhouse, Patrice and Associates, Rod ‘N’ Reel, Smoky Joe’s Grill, Solomons Pearl Cafe, South County Cafe, Sweet Sue’s Bake Shop, and most recently Chessie’s Deli Subs and Pizza.
Volunteers are also needed. End Hunger’s fundraising is event-driven, with such events as a Bike Ride (routes of 16 miles to a metric century, and a new-rider route, held in late April); a Dragon Boat Festival (an annual late-June family day in North Beach, free to attend and $2,000 per boat); Foodstock (August, in Prince Frederick); and a Live Out Loud Obstacle Run (September, in Huntingtown).
If you would like to help End Hunger in Calvert County or know someone who could benefit from the training program, please call 410-257-5672 or visit the website at  www.endhungercalvert.org.

By Sarah Fleischman Staff Writer
Working behind the meat counter at a grocery store isn’t the most glamorous job, but for Filo Blake, it changed his life after needing to rely on a food pantry for six years.
After it became difficult to find construction jobs, Blake said he lived paycheck to paycheck. That meant a lifestyle where once he got paid on Friday, there was nothing left after the most important bills were paid. Blake said he would worry about having the electricity cut off. He didn’t want to rely on Chesapeake Cares Food Pantry at first, but at the prompting of his wife and neighbor, he said he came to realize a lot of people need extra help, including him.
Blake applied for the End Hunger Culinary Training Program, a nine-week class that helped him learn useful skills for working in the food service industry. He ended the program with an internship with Nick’s of Calvert, and was then hired full time as a meat clerk. He’s been at Nick’s for nine months.
Now that he has stable, full-time employment, Blake said his outlook on life is better, with less stress of living paycheck to paycheck.
“It feels good. It actually feels really good,” Blake said.
Blake said he has always liked cooking but never pictured himself working with food for a living. He does most of the cooking for himself and his wife.
Mary LaBorie, program director at End Hunger, said she first met Blake when she volunteered and continued to know him when she joined End Hunger. LaBorie said Blake is enthusiastic, polite and never late.
“He’s not one that has abused the system in any way. He has a good work ethic,” LaBorie said. Blake had the foundation of a good work ethic and just needed a leg up to find employment, LaBorie added.
His position at Nick’s is a good fit, LaBorie said, because Blake has experience with hunting, so the work he does comes naturally. Since getting a job at Nick’s, LaBorie said, Blake has become happier.
“His eyes are brighter when you see him,” LaBorie said.
The motto of End Hunger in Calvert County is “Give where you live,” said Jacqueline Miller, president. Blake’s story is a testimony to how if people give to End Hunger, it benefits local people who get local jobs, she said.
“What’s remarkable about Filo [Blake], in general, is his story. He spent six years going to the food pantry,” Miller said. And now, Blake is self-sufficient.
“I know a lot of people haven’t succeeded, and I have,” Blake said.
sfleischman@somdnews.com

By Andrea Frazier Staff Writer

A budding Calvert nonprofit dedicated to assisting the neediest members of the community through fundraising and programming received an anonymous $25,000 donation, 100 percent of which will go to Calvert County residents.
Boasting nearly zero overhead costs, the all-volunteer Calvert Family Advocates organization works closely with the Calvert County Department of Social Services to help local families with necessities like dodging homelessness and acquiring job training, according to a press release.
And it seems their work correlates with the donors’ desires for how their money be used.
“They’re definitely concerned citizens. … They want to give back to the community that’s given to them,” said CFA chair Lori Barbee. “They really don’t want attention and want to stay anonymous. I’d love to be shouting out who they are.”
But instead of publicly naming the donors, the organization has opted to praise their generosity and pump the $25,000 back into the community, strengthening and expanding programs, such as assisting those in economic need with paying rent, utility bills and security deposits, said CFA treasurer Chris Cummings.
The Calvert Family Advocates Board of Directors — which also serves as the Executive Advisory Board to Calvert’s social services department — also is developing a program to assist students in college and those enrolled in job-skill training programs with child care expenses, the release states. In addition, it has donated to End Hunger in Calvert County to cover the expenses for a student to attend its culinary program.
Many families CFA assists have been plagued by serious illness or unemployment, Cummings said.
“We work with families who have everything in place to be sufficient and just need a helping hand,” she added.
CFA started in June 2013, according to the press release. It has garnered about $5,000 in the past 18 months, prior to the donation.
“I think it’s a huge boost to them and their ability to establish themselves,” said Calvert social services director Amye Scrivener, whose organization suggested CFA as the recipient of the donation. “With the economy and the different crises families go through, there’s not enough support. They will be a reliable resource to go to when people are really in need. … We’re going to be able to give them a helping hand and help them move forward.”
She said when the donors approached her seeking an organization to receive their money, their criteria were to avoid overhead costs and help the neediest members of the community.
When CFA representatives met with them, the donors were uninterested in the tax break. The donors, she said, simply wanted to share their success with the community.