On Tuesday, November 10^th, the Bryte Career and College Training Campus held a Harvest Festival and Open House to celebrate the new Bryte Campus and CAFFE (Culinary Arts and Farm to Fork Education Program). The new campus was renovated from the old Bryte Elementary School that closed because of poor enrollment. In August, there was an official ribbon-cutting ceremony aimed at the media. “It was an opportunity for the parents and the community to come out who hadn’t had an opportunity to see the facility yet and get better acquainted with the project and what we have been doing as a district to showcase these things and put this program in place for our students,” said Giorgos Kazanis, administrator of communication and community outreach. The Harvest Festival was organized and publicized as a public event to draw the West Sacramento community to Bryte Campus to learn about their new programs, enjoy some good food, and explore the offerings of some vendors.

The event was well-attended and gave students the opportunity to run all aspects of the cafe. This included running the cashier positions as well as preparing and serving food. Students were also involved with running the CAFFE booth and running demonstrations for the parents to view so they could see what their students learn.

“They were manning all of the stations,” said Kazanis. “They were operating the cafe area, a full service restaurant. They had a cashier at the counter, with more kids in the back working in the kitchen serving up spaghetti and salad. They also had a booth that was more representative of the program itself. Kids were there representing the program. If anyone from the public wanted to learn a little bit more about the curriculum side and what they are working on every day. They were giving tours of the facility to anyone who wanted to check out the kitchens. A couple of the kids did cooking demonstrations and offered free snacks to the audience.” The vendors and information booths that attended the event were Avon, the Center for Land-Based Learning, Christmas Crafts, CAFFE, PTSA, Mary Kay, Miche Bag, and Scentsy.

This showcases how the CAFFE program is preparing students for culinary occupations in the future with skill-based training. The Washington Unified School District has been involved in increasing the number of skill-based programs in the face of students graduating into an America that is increasingly demanding skilled workers.