Students in the Caridad Culinary Training program have a much bigger kitchen in which to train.

Caridad Community Kitchen will celebrate its newly expanded facility on Wednesday, Oct. 18.

The kitchen, a program of the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, provides meals for various meal programs, a 10-week culinary training program for unemployed and underemployed individuals and a catering service. The space was expanded from about 1,000 square feet to 3,000 square feet.

This expanded kitchen, at 845 N. Main Ave., will use the space to increase the number of meals prepared by the program.

The number of meals prepared at Caridad will jump from about 168,000 a year to 500,000 annually, the food bank said. These include after-school dinners for children and meals for seniors and the homeless.

Students in the culinary program will now prepare free community meals in a commercial kitchen equipped for expanded production.

Also, the Caridad Culinary Training Program is competing in the Tucson Electric Power β€œPowerful Choice Challenge,” which will award $125,000 to the nonprofit that receives the most online votes through 6 a.m. Oct. 25.

People over the age of 18 who live in Pima County are eligible to vote once daily during this time at tep.com


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