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| navigate: home: magazine: spring/summer 1998: article | |
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Food safety Program meets training needs of nonprofit groups By Nancy Crabb Penn State Great Valley | ||||||
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Each week, it seems, the headlines announce yet another food horror: tainted beef, salmonella-laced eggs, deadly bacteria growing in strawberries and cantaloupes. And with each new scare, new rules emerge: no more traditional caesar salads, raw cookie dough or rare steaks; and everything—hands, counters, knives, cantaloupes—must be kept scrupulously clean. In this new brave world of cooking and eating, it’s little wonder that Philadelphia County would pass a law a few years ago requiring at least one employee from every county organization that serves food—from restaurants to hospitals, cafeterias and even homeless shelters—to complete a 16-hour food safety certification program. The law made sense, and many Philadelphia organizations, including area colleges and universities, rushed to offer the training on a for-profit basis to a captive market of restaurants and hospitals. But for the hundreds of Philadelphia area nonprofit organizations, the new law posed a potential financial hardship: with tight budgets and shrinking corporate donations, many simply could not afford the fees charged for training. Enter Penn State’s Philadelphia County Cooperative Extension. Teaming with the Philadelphia Food Bank, Philabundance and the Philadelphia Department of Health, cooperative extension officials tailored a National Restaurant Association food safety certification program to the needs of area nonprofits and began offering it at cost. The program, which started in early 1996, has been an overwhelming success. More than 200 employees of area nonprofits have completed the training and are now certified for five years. “Our participants have included the Salvation Army, drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, soup kitchens, shelters—any place that helps the needy and serves food to the needy,” John Byrnes, the Philadelphia County extension agent who manages the program, said. “We’ve had a real range of people, from executive directors of very small organizations to cooks in larger ones. And I’ve never worked with a more appreciative group.” The program meets once a week for four weeks, going over everything from food contamination issues to developing a food safety system, cleaning and sanitizing and purchasing and storing food safely. Byrnes, a registered dietitian who also holds a Ph.D. in health education, team-teaches the classes with officials from Philabundance and the Philadelphia Food Bank. “Prior to the legislation, there was a real void and a lot of inconsistency in the amount of training people received,” Byrnes said. “Now, we know they are receiving the training they need to better ensure food safety.”
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