Culinary Event Showcases Skills for Success in Hospitality Careers

(Wilsonville, OR) – Twenty-one teams of high school students involved in ProStart programs across Oregon will be converging at SYSCO Food Services of Portland for the first-ever Gingerbread House Contest on December 13, 2006. The winning teams will receive scholarships and prizes, and showcase their culinary craftsmanship under the watchful eye of hospitality industry leaders serving as judges.

Forest Grove High, McKay (Salem), Westview (Beaverton) and Sam Barlow (Gresham) high school students will meet at SYSCO, with the competition beginning in earnest at 10:15 a.m.. Judging will determine the winners of Most Creative, Best Theme, Judges’ choice, Best Construction, Grand Prize, and Runner Up categories.

Event organizer Heidi Larson, a ProStart instructor from Sam Barlow High School in Gresham, thought this would be a fun event leading up to the holidays and provide students with more practical application of the culinary arts lessons they are learning in school.

“I have always enjoyed building gingerbread houses and wanted my students to have this opportunity, and thought this would be a fun chance to compete,” Larson said.

She got the competition idea from the Food Network, and knew it would be a good format using fun materials. Additionally, ProStart students are just a little more than two months away from the Oregon ProStart State High School Championships on February 24, 2007, and spicing up practice with a gingerbread competition would get the teams into the competitive spirit.

After the awards are given out, the gingerbread houses are going to have a second life. Schools in the Gresham-Barlow School District have identified elementary school students that are less fortunate and might not enjoy the holiday trappings as much as other students, and all completed gingerbread homes will be given away to those students. This is another example of the community involvement of this hospitality school-to-career program.

The ProStart program, administered in Oregon by the Oregon Restaurant Education Foundation (OREF) of Wilsonville, is a nationwide system of high school restaurant and hospitality courses linked with mentored worksite experiences. The ProStart program is comprised of state-driven industry and educational partnerships throughout the country, and it exists as the national umbrella organization for restaurant and hospitality career education. In Oregon, there are 44 ProStart schools, 2,085 students enrolled in the program, and 226 students working in the industry as of Fall 2006.

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