introduction

is a professional catering training programme for unemployed South Asian ethnic minorities in Hong Kong, developed and run by Inner City Ministries Ltd under the guidance of Kaushic Biswas and Dhan Kumari Rai, members of staff who are qualified chefs with wide experience in the hotel and catering industry.
Taste of Grace is a “hands on” practical application of the Christian Gospel - a course which aims to provide opportunities for the long term unemployed to gain skills that will transform their lives and prepare them for work in the catering world
Taste of Grace is a 3 - 6 month full time training course in catering available free of charge to recruits from the South Asian ethnic minority community and will be taught in our new purpose built kitchen facility in Yau Ma Tei peppers Through the provision of this course and the employment they will obtain, families will gain stability, social security and lasting hope especially in the Gospel of Salvation through Jesus Christ.

Background

Bringing together a passion to see lives restored through the Gospel and his professional training, Kaushic was led to the idea of a training kitchen which would provide those disempowered by unemployment with the opportunity to make a real life change. In 2006, our first vocational training programme was started in a small kitchen in premises in Jordan newly let by ICM. Developing this further, in 2007, ICM began working in partnership with Yang Memorial Methodist Social Services and the Employment Retraining Board in developing the Kitchen Assistant in Indian Cuisine training course. The course was designed to be introductory but also to impart more than just kitchen skills as Dhan and Kaushic witnessed to the power of Jesus in changing lives. Since 2007, 12 courses have been completed with 138 trainees completing the course, 70% of whom have found employment. However, despite its success, our vocational training course only runs for 3 weeks and only gives a taste(!) of the possibilities of working in the catering trade. This limitation prompted us to go further – to develop and resource a sixth month training course able to provide a full range of skills and knowledge in catering and much higher possibility of long term employment.

The future

Our long term strategy is that Taste of Grace will become self-sustaining through the following means:-

Government funding through a variety of initiatives to assist the disadvantaged in Hong Kong.

Providing outside catering to supporting Churches – donations received in lieu of payment.

Specialist cooking workshops for those who would like to enhance their cooking abilities.

Income generated through catering projects once we have obtained a Food Factory License.

We also need to seek ways to support some of our recruits whose income is very low and who need to have their living costs met in addition to receiving Government assistance in the form of CSSA – we hope that we can obtain grants from the Employment Retraining Board or provide a discretionary fund which can act in the form of a bursary for recruits in critical financial need

Target

The South Asian ethnic minority community in Hong Kong has experienced long term discrimination and marginalization. Language difficulties, cultural issues, inadequate educational opportunities have led to high unemployment and a downward spiral of a wide range of social and domestic problems. The overall effect of this is disempowerment which is prevalent in many families and, as such, is easily passed on to the children. We aim to break this trend. Hence our intention is to target the long term unemployed, rehabilitated ex-addicts and those granted refugee status who may obtain permission to train for employment here, pending a change of status.

Train

Under the direction of Kaushic Biswas and Dhan Kumari Rai and conducted in our newly designed professional training kitchen, we offer a full time 6 month catering course for 4 to 6 recruits free of charge. This course, taught in English supplemented with Hindi, Bengali and Nepali, is the only one of its kind in Hong Kong and will enable successful trainees to further a career in the catering industry. In order to satisfy professional training requirements, part of our training course will involve cooking for events which will enable us to offer catering services to Churches and organizations. In addition, we will offer food, health and nutrition classes in the evening available to those in our target community who want to learn more about healthy cooking and eating.

transform

Our aim in this course is to bring hope and to restore a sense of dignity and self-worth. Fundamental to this is the means to provide sufficiently and independently for oneself and one’s family. The catering industry is a significant employer in Hong Kong, and our aim is to optimize the opportunities for our beneficiaries in this field, leading to them becoming socially integrated, productive members of Hong Kong society. However, we want to bring more than just the hope of employment to those who train with us; our foremost desire is that they experience the life changing reality of a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus and, throughout the course, we will provide opportunities to witness to them and encourage them to come to know the gospel of salvation.

how you can help

Although we hope Taste of Grace is seen ultimately as a self-financing project for ICM, the initial capital outlay for its inception has come from our general fund. However we need to recuperate this cost quite urgently and also find supporters to maintain our running costs

Donate towards capital costs

Our initial capital expenditure to set up Taste of Grace is $300,000 which includes the cost of renovating the premises, acquiring good quality kitchen fittings and appliances, appropriate health and safety equipment, utilities and administration. This expenditure as well as funds to develop and improve our facilities is made in faith. If you would like to make a gift towards this project please make a cheque out to "Inner City Ministries Ltd”. and mark on the reverse “Taste of Grace Project” - then come and visit us to see what your gift has done. We will gladly supply a tax receipt and provide you with opportunities to sample the food.

Taste of Grace