NEW YORK - Jared Thomas of the Bronx says his life wasn't going in the right direction after graduating from community college and he struggled to stay out of trouble.

"I didn't want to keep on making the same mistakes, being around the same people and I wanted a job,” said Thomas, who is now a Chef for City Beet Kitchens.

What You Need To Know

  • City Beet Kitchens is a catering company created and operated by homeless services Non-Profit Project Renewal

  • They provide events catering and prepare and deliver meals to New Yorkers in need at homeless shelters and transitional/supportive housing

  • The events catering business has suffered during the COVID-19 Pandemic but has doubled its reach to shelters citywide to meet the demand for hungry New Yorkers

  • Many of City Beet Kitchens' Chefs are graduates of the Project Renewal Culinary Arts Program, which teaches skills to those with histories of homelessness, incarceration, substance abuse disorder or unemployment

"It's a three month training and three month internship,”  said Project Renewal Executive Chef Anthony O'Connor, who added that they like to hire graduates of the program at City Beets Kitchens because they know exactly what we are getting in terms of a candidate’s skills and attitude.

City Beet Kitchens employs chefs with histories of homelessness, substance abuse disorder, unemployment or incarceration. Among them is Yaya Springer of Brooklyn, another program graduate and a mother of two boys.

"I needed to break the cycle of people in the family going back and forth to jail, so I'm breaking the cycle and I'm showing them that hard work does pay off,”  said Springer, who also runs her own catering business on weekends.

Jared Thomas says Project Renewal has given him the chance to be in the place where he feels most at home in the kitchen.

"Being here has pushed me in the right direction and just made me realize what I wanted to do in life,” said Thomas who noted that getting in trouble doesn’t exist in his future anymore, just straight positivity.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a drastic decrease in the City Beets Kitchens events catering business, they have doubled their reach to shelters and housing facilities to provide more that 7,300 meals a day to 38 different sites. To find out more, head to ProjectRenewal.org.