Community Kitchen Academy is a culinary job training program operated in partnership between Feeding Chittenden and the Vermont Foodbank. Students develop the professional and inter-personal skills they need to find and retain employment in the hospitality industry. Meals prepared in the program are used to fight hunger in the community.

A professional chef instructor teaches unemployed and underemployed Vermonters marketable skills that prepare them for sustainable careers in the food service industry, helping to break the cycle of poverty and hunger.

Students learn about safe kitchen practices—including safe knife handling, preventing cuts, burns, handling accidents and fires, managing food allergies—and a variety of skills such as knife sharpening, knife and equipment identification, food safety practices, various cooking methods, food receiving and storage, the preparation of nutritious recipes and appropriate portion sizes.