Street kids' road to working world leads through pasta palace

[HuckleB]

This is a wonderful story that should be spread far and wide, IMHO. We enjoyed a wonderful meal here to celebrate my wife's birthday two weeks ago, and I can tell you that we'll be going back for more and more.

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Street kids' road to working world leads through pasta palace

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/front_page/110104175897390.xml

"Polly Bangs drifted through restaurant jobs and then worked as a counselor for homeless kids before combining the two interests. Her restaurant, Pasta Bangs, hires homeless teens for three-month "boot camp" stints in the food service business. Bangs says, "I think that one of the biggest obstacles among homeless and disadvantaged youths is unemployment. It's hard for them to get a job since they don't have an address or a phone number. I'm also concerned with social services getting cut, and I think it's important for small businesses to pick up the slack."

...

Every three months, Bangs brings four new teenagers to work in the restaurant alongside 10 staff members who have received special training in how to work with homeless youth. It is the equivalent of a culinary boot camp, an intensive training in restaurant basics for teens who in some cases have never held a job before, who are addicts perhaps battling years of neglect or who have learning disabilities or mental health issues. "Kids who are facing more than other teenagers do," she says.

And it means that each night, Bangs must move seamlessly between all the usual demands of running a restaurant and the role of informal social worker -- between mixing cocktails and boosting the self-esteem of a busboy.

But Bangs, the daughter of a teacher and a physician who split up when Bangs was two, seems perfectly suited to the task. She has, as she puts it, spent most of her life "inhabiting two worlds."

Street kids' road to working world leads through pasta palace

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/front_page/110104175897390.xml



Happy Thanksgiving Weekend...

[HuckleB]

1. This is a great read!

Kick.