CulinaryCorps Inc., the nation's first service organization for culinary professionals, will expand its culanthropy footprint with an outreach trip to Puerto Rico from Jan. 31 to Feb. 7, 2010. Through Nov. 23, 2009, CulinaryCorps will recruit a team of ten qualified and passionate culinary professionals to travel to the country to make a difference through food and cooking.Since March 2007, CulinaryCorps has led six week-long service trips offering food-focused humanitarian aid to communities in the US. These trips, which recruit chefs, cooks, food educators and culinary students, are designed to address a community's most critical food challenges: emergency hunger relief, cooking and nutrition education, healthy food access, childhood wellness, and culinary heritage preservation. Initial CulinaryCorps efforts focused on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, connecting 75 chefs with an intense portfolio of projects including establishing farmers markets, edible school yards and emergency feeding centers.
To date, these teams of CulinaryCorps chefs from around the world have created over 6,000 meals for the communities served, mentored 400 local students on the importance of healthy eating, designed a "Grow.Cook.Dine" after-school cooking club for the state of Mississippi, and taught AmeriCorps members how to cook for Habitat for Humanity volunteers.
Applications for the 2010 trip are now available at www.culinarycorps.org.
