To: Josh, Amy Belcher, Luigi Sison

From: Larry Werner

Subject: Community Kitchen

Since the drug-action meeting at the Armory, I've done some work trying to prepare for the launch of the community-kitchen idea. To summarize the idea, Luigi and I would work with youth to teach them about cooking and catering. Those who attend our classes would become part of a catering business that would prepare and sell food service to community groups, including YMCA family programs, that would like meals with their programming.

At this point, we have met with a group of students at the Armory meeting, met with Amy Belcher to discuss her interest in the project and met with Sgt. Windsor, who runs the Armory, and pledges total cooperation with our project.

Here are the next steps, as I see them:

1. Luigi and Larry meet with Amy and the interested youth to move the project ahead with a goal of catering the late-October Y event at the Armory.

2. Solicit equipment that the Armory kitchen lacks, such as convection ovens, cooking equipment and serving equipment.

3. Write a business plan for the cooking school and culinary service, including coming up with a name.

4. Do some marketing with groups in the community that might be interested in supporting our venture.

One new development has emerged that I would appreciate some feedback on. My son, Zack, and Luigi's son, Andi, attend Artech charter school, which is building a kitchen for preparing its own hot lunches. My wife is the chair of the Artech board. Given Artech's orientation toward the arts, does it make sense to think about putting our teaching and catering kitchen at a school that could teach the culinary arts, along with visual and performing arts? We could still use the Armory kitchen for catering events there, but we would have an educational setting for our classes.

I also wonder whether we should commit our whole effort to a facility that, before Sgt. Windsor, was off limits to the community. In my meeting with Sgt. Windsor, he emphasized that the commitment to let us use the Armory comes from him and could be changed by superiors or successors.

Finally, here is a list of the students who have expressed an interest in our project:

Marie Fisher, 507-210-3254

Gerrit Duys, 507-261-7798, gerritlduys@aol.com

Abe Henson, 507-581-2938

Keller Kirchberg, 507-581-4113, specialk10008@gmail.com

Thomas Launer, 507-581-2801, tlauner@hotmail.fr

Luigi Sison, 612-281-2557, lsison@yahoo.com

Larry Werner, 612-743-5117, lhwerner@frontiernet.net

Ruth Amerman, 507-649-1464, indieraker102@yahoo.com

Gus DeMann

Amy Belcher, 507-645-0088, abelcher@northfieldymca.org

We should meet soon. Amy suggests the second week of school. My calendar is quite open. Luigi works in Rochester during the day. So an evening meeting is probably what we would have to do.