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26 www.<strong>eatdrink</strong>.ca spotlight A Recipe for Social Enterprise London Training Centre is breaking new ground By KYM WOLFE If you’re looking for a good recipe for social enterprise, you might want to take a page out of London Training Centre’s book. is local non-prot has blended a variety of ingredients to create a unique food-centred enterprise. Here, revenues from food production, food processing, food retailing and food service are used to support skills development, employment opportunities and community engagement. “Food is a catalyst for social change because it engages people,” says David Corke, LTC’s executive director. Everything the agency cooks up will ultimately contribute to its three bottom lines: 1) to help people, 2) to have a positive impact in the community, and 3) to generate enough revenue to accomplish the rst two. “e great thing about social enterprise is that if you break even, or only make a dollar, you are a success,” says Corke. LTC has a number of revenue-generating channels: Allumette, a banquet-stang agency; a professional training arm that provides instruction in everything from Safe Food Handling and Smart Serve to First Aid, CPR and computer training; and a new initiative, rental of their kitchen area to caterers and food artisans who need access to a licensed and inspected kitchen. LTC is also planning to launch a series of cooking classes in the spring of 2012, featuring a variety of guest chefs. All of the surplus funds gener- David Corke, Executive Director of the LTC, in the Centre’s garden. № 32 | November/December 2011 ated from the revenue-producing services are plowed back into Local Food Skills, the agency’s food training program. Relationships with community partners who are involved in dierent elements of the food chain also feed the Local Food Skills’ bottom line. For example, making soup stock is a fundamental skill in the kitchen, says Corke. “Dan Murphy from Field Gate Organics supplies us with beef and chicken bones that we use to teach participants stock-making skills. Once the stock is made we freeze it, then send it back to Dan to retail, and we get a share of the prot. It’s a great private sector/ non-prot sector partnership.” LTC was established 25 years ago to provide training and support to unemployed people interested in working in the food and hospitality industry. e food training program has evolved over time, and now reaches back into the supply chain to incorporate eld-to-table elements. “Beyond teaching food skills, we discuss how to connect with food,” says Steve James, the chef who runs the training kitchen. “We try to use traditionally and ethically grown food that we grow ourselves or that we purchase locally.” is past year some of the food used in the training program – tomatoes, leeks, carrots and other fresh produce – was grown in LTC’s ve acres of land on a farm on the outskirts of London, just west of Hyde Park. e tranquil country setting provided an ideal backdrop Chef Steve James, in the kitchen with students Solomon Kedebe, Denise Pelletier, & Nikolas Kerr (back)
Jacob Hawes (left) and Ken Rutledge, student chefs, at Food for Thought, a fundraising event. BOX OFFICE 1.877.862.5984 blythfestival.com to the Food For ought fundraiser that was held there in September. Both David Corke and Steve James have an interest in the local food movement, and they are excited about educating children about the food that is being grown on the city’s back doorstep. is year a new program, Locavore Kid, is being introduced in one of the ames Valley District School Board’s elementary schools. www.<strong>eatdrink</strong>.ca 27 Small production growers have an important place in the local food supply chain, says Corke, and this year LTC has partnered with Farm Start to promote small-scale farming as a career option. LTC would also like to explore ways to ensure that small growers can access distribution systems beyond farmers’ markets to get their crops to local dinner tables. “Small food production and the development of a secondary food system will create economic energy to support those small operations and provide employment opportunities,” says Corke. London Training Centre 317 Adelaide St. South, Unit 110, London 519-685-4331 www.londontraining.on.ca KYM WOLFE is freelance writer based in London.
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