FWCS Culinary Art students serve the community a free Thanksgiving feast

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) - Fort Wayne Community Schools Culinary Art students have been preparing for days to serve anyone who needs a Thanksgiving meal. People showed out tonight to eat and support the high school student’s hard work.

Monday was the 5th annual FWCS Thanksgiving feast. Students and volunteers came together to serve all the holiday classics. The volunteers were made up of retired faculty, current faculty, graduated students and local business owners.

One volunteer was Rich Tavierne who owns Sweet Aroma Barbeque. He spends time throughout the year teaching the culinary students and says events like tonight are important for them to participate in.

“When you integrate an educational experience like this with community, they start to broaden their scope, broaden their view of how they can help community. So now they can walk into life and realize hey I can give back,” explains Tavierne.

Those who attended were grateful for the free meal and even more grateful to see who was serving them.

“This is gorgeous, this is so beautiful. I love to see when the kids get together like this cause it’s a big deal to a lot of the community here,” says Fort Wayne resident Valerie Brown.

The FWCS Career Academy not only has a Culinary Arts program but also Automotive, Cosmetology and much more to offer their students. In fact, students were the ones to come up with the Thanksgiving meal idea five years ago.

Those a part of the program see the benefits and are thankful for the opportunity to get ready for life.

“I’ve met new people, and they’ve got me out in a career I didn’t know I would ever do. Like it’s gotten me a lot further than I thought I would ever be in life,” says Career Academy student Maddison Fisher.

The team served nearly 500 people tonight and hope to do more events like throughout the year.

Copyright 2023 WPTA. All rights reserved.