Food Food: Lubbock restaurants partner with Texas Tech to support the future workforce – KCBD

Lubbock, Texas (KCBD) – The Lubbock head of the Texas Restaurant Association is preparing the track for future industry employees by combining food and fashion. He hosted food in fashion, along with the Texas Technical University, to emphasize and support students in the hope of landing a career in these deals.

Students in the design and manufacture of clothing partnered with Lubbock restaurants to create the look for the fashion show. They were given about two months to create clothing, with at least half of the materials they used coming from their partner restaurant.

The money raised from the fashion show will support design students, culinary programs supporting high school students in the Lubbock area, and programs through the Texas Restaurant Foundation to help develop the future workforce.

Kai Evans, the chairman of the Lubbock chapter of the Texas Restaurant Association and the owner and operator of the Expedition Cafe at Adventure Park, says the support of the workforce in the restaurant begins with the showing of students all opportunities in the industry.

“It really helps them to start in the culinary and just fall in love with this industry. It’s so much fun to try new foods and try new things, so you really just try to spread this passion for the industry and what a flirty industry is – the fact that the sky really is the border, “Evans said.

Students in culinary programs from Lubbock ISD and Lubbock-Cooper also helped serve the event.

“So they get practical training with restaurants even tonight and not people work. It’s just a neat collaboration, “Evans said.

Heather Pickett is the CEO of the Texas Restaurant Foundation, the non -profit shoulder of the Texas Association of Restaurants. She says the development of the next generation of food workers is crucial to the industry.

“You see a lot of workforce problems, so here we focus on the development of the workforce here, and make sure they have enough trained employees, maintaining these employees. That’s what we’re turning right now, “she said.

The Foundation also supports people looking for a second chance.

“We have a new program with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, called a second chance, pairing persons who approach the date of exit and train them, and then help to hire them to work in the industry before their release to help reduce recurrence, Picket said.

As for the design students at Texas Tech, Ashley Rougeaux-Burnes, Assistant Professor and Program Director for Design and Production of Clothing, says it allows their creativity to flourish as they learn how to tell history through clothing.

“It’s as joint as we can do it. So, students go, go around the restaurant. They see what type of materials they could use and then return, make sketches and then return them to the owners or operators of the restaurants and receive their contribution. So, they can really possess how their restaurant performs, “she said.

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