LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – The Lubbock Chapter of the Texas Restaurant Association is preparing the runway for the industry’s future employees, by combining food and fashion. It hosted Food in Fashion, alongside Texas Tech University to highlight and support students hoping to land a career in those trades.
Students from Apparel Design and Manufacturing partnered with Lubbock restaurants to create looks for the fashion show. They were given about two months to create an outfit, with at least half of the materials they used coming from inside their partner restaurant.
The money raised from the fashion show will support the design students, the culinary programs supporting high schoolers in the Lubbock area, and programs through the Texas Restaurant Foundation that will help develop the future workforce.
Kai Evans, the chair for the Lubbock Chapter of the Texas Restaurant Association and the owner and operator of Expedition Cafe in Adventure Park, says supporting the restaurant workforce starts with showing students all of the opportunities in the industry.
“Really helping them get their start in culinary and just falling in love with this industry. It’s so much fun to try new foods and try new things, and so, really just trying to spread that passion about the industry and what a neat industry it is – the fact that really the sky’s the limit,” Evans said.
Students in culinary programs from Lubbock ISD and Lubbock-Cooper also helped serve food at the event.
“So, they’re getting hands-on training with the restaurants even tonight, and it’s not people that they work for. It’s just a neat collaboration,” Evans said.
Heather Pickett is the executive director of the Texas Restaurant Foundation, the non-profit arm of the Texas Restaurant Association. She says developing the next generation of foodservice workers is critical to the industry.
“You see a lot of workforce problems and so, that’s why we’re focusing on workforce development here at the foundation and making sure they have enough trained employees, keeping those employees. That’s what we’re addressing right now,” she said.
The foundation also supports people looking for a second chance.
“We have a new program with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice called Second Chances, pairing individuals that are nearing their release date and getting them trained, then help getting them hired to work in the industry prior to their release to help cut down on recidivism,” Pickett said.
As for the design students at Texas Tech, Ashley Rougeaux-Burnes, an associate professor and program director for Apparel Design and Manufacturing, says it allows their creativity to thrive, while learning how to tell a story through clothing.
“It’s as collaborative as we can make it. So, the the students go, they tour the restaurant. They see what type of materials they could potentially use and then they come back, they do sketches and then they bring those back to the owners or the operators of the restaurants and get input from them, as well. So, they can really own how their restaurant is being represented,” she said.
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