One of the consequences of the nation's recession is an increase in hunger. New York City's leading hunger relief organization is City Harvest. The organization reports that 400,000 people in New York City suffer from moderate or severe hunger - 118,000 of them are children. The Institute of Culinary Education has been a supporter of City Harvest for years, donating food on a daily basis, and giving the organization space to hold fundraising events.

This fall, The Institute of Culinary Education is doing even more. First, The Institute will make a donation to City Harvest equal to 5% of the face value of all pre-holiday gift certificate sales.

Second, The Institute chose to make "Hunger In New York" the primary, page-one story in the current issue of The Main Course, the school's quarterly course guide, which is circulated to 85,000 people. The holiday 2001 issue was mailed November 27.

$50,000 Scholarship Fund For Windows of Hope

The Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund was setup in late September by David Emil and Chef Michael Lomonaco to provide support for the families of foodservice workers who perished on September 11.

One of the fund's goals is to help with surviving children's education. To help with this aspect, the Institute has setup a $50,000 scholarship fund for surviving spouses, sons or daughters to attend the school's diploma program in Culinary Arts, Pastry & Baking, or Culinary Management during 2002. In addition to the scholarships, via employee donations and company matching, The Institute has made a $6,000 cash contribution to Windows of Hope.

Supporting Restaurants

Lastly, The Institute is cognizant of the revenue loss that so many New York City restaurants have been facing with the triple burden of recession, terrorism fears and the downturn in business travel. One of the ways the school has chosen to help is to send and pay for all career classes to go out to lunch or dinner. Accordingly, over the past five weeks, over 80 students, accompanied by their Chef-Instructors, have gone to over eight different restaurants including Chicama, Tribeca Grill, Felidia, Eleven Madison Park, Aquavit, Peasant and Guastavino.

Founded in 1975, The Institute of Culinary Education is one of the nation's largest, oldest and now fastest growing centers for culinary learning. The Institute is unique versus any other major culinary school in America because of its product mix. Approximately half of the school's class volume and revenue come from career-focused vocational programs, while the other half comes from hands-on recreational programs for the general public. This year, over 18,000 people will take part in a class or event at The Institute, which is located in a new 26,000 sq. ft. facility at 50 W. 23rd St. in the middle of New York City. Formerly known as Peter Kump's New York Cooking School, The Institute and its nine teaching kitchens are open day and night, 52 weeks a year.