FareStart uses food as tool to transform lives

They come in the doors as broken people but a unique program in Seattle called FareStart uses food as a tool to help them put the pieces back together and transform their lives.

Mike used to be homeless. From the time he was 13, he was an alcoholic and he just couldn’t see his way out of life on the streets. “I’d gotten out of jail and my girlfriend had died while I was in jail so I had no where to go,” he says. “I was just trying to drink myself to death.”

About a year ago, his corrections officer suggested he look into FareStart, a culinary job training and placement program in downtown Seattle. But Mike didn’t think he could pull it off. “I tried to explain to him that I’m living in a tree. It’s not like I have an alarm clock,” he says. “I asked him if I could wait until I got myself through a treatment program.”

Mike eventually did get into FareStart, where he not only learned how to cook, he also took life skills classes and got drug, alcohol and mental health counseling.

“When somebody walks in our door, we want them to start feeling the value we see in them right away,” says Megan Karch, CEO of FareStart. “We want them to feel respected the moment they walk in.”

For more than 20 years, the organization has been helping people who’ve been struggling to turn their lives around. She says they happen to use food as a tool to do that. They bring in people who are homeless or at risk of living on the streets and teach them a cooking skill so they can get back to work and on a better path.

During the 16-week program, they learn all aspects of the food industry. Every day, they create and serve delicious lunches at FareStart’s restaurant. On Thursday nights, different guest chefs from around the area work with the students to prepare three-course dinners.

Not only that, they also help make the 500,000 meals that FareStart delivers to childcare centers and homeless shelters each year.

Karch says they’re part of the solution from day one. “They’re providing meals to shelters where they used to sleep,” she says. “That in and of itself makes them stand up straighter.”

FareStart has an amazing success rate. Eighty-seven percent of the graduates find work within three months. Mike was one of them. After he graduated last winter, he got his first job at a Seattle restaurant.

“If you’re in a situation in your life where everything seems hopeless and just down, this place will lift you up,” he says. “It’s just so positive, and it’s given me confidence and hope.”

FareStart is holding its first ever “Guest-chef Spectacular,” featuring 40 chefs and wineries from around the area. It’s on May 23 at the Showbox in SODO. All the money raised from the event will go back into the program to support job training and placement services.

Bonneville Seattle is proud to recognize FareStart as its April Charity of the Month.