Transforming Education and Employment
The Chester County Food Bank provides food and nutrition education to its residents who are at-risk or experiencing food insecurity in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
From Food Bank to Workforce Builder:
FRESHstart Kitchen™
As the central hunger-relief organization in the county, Chester County Food Bank serves a network of 160 partners to meet emergency food needs while establishing long-term solutions to chronic food insecurity. They serve over 40,000 residents through food distribution and education, health, and wellness.
The Challenge
Outdated Intake and Data Management System
FRESHstart Kitchen™ is a 12-week culinary arts workforce development training program providing a pathway out of economic poverty. The FRESHstart Kitchen program offers the necessary support for individuals who have not had the resources nor opportunities to succeed through sustained employment. FRESHstart Kitchen students have experienced barriers to employment such as being formerly incarcerated, recovering from addiction, mental illness, trauma, developmental disabilities, and housing insecurity, to name a few. The program helps students gain confidence and skills to begin a career in the hospitality or restaurant industry. They provide transportation and personalized support for each student based on their personal and professional goals.
With many students and many different classes, the FRESHstart Kitchen program needs to track and manage large amounts of data. Before using Launchpad, data was tracked manually using paper, basic spreadsheets, and OneNote, and this method was fragmented and inefficient. With the first in-person cohort since the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in September 2021, the FRESHstart Kitchen program needed a more organized and robust system to manage data and track student journeys and outcomes.
The Solution
Modern Data Tracking and Management System
The FRESHstart Kitchen incorporates quantitative and qualitative methods to ensure the services provided effectively improve job readiness, overall well-being, and employment. Using Launchpad, the program can provide an in-depth look at the effects of the FRESHstart Kitchen resulting from the data integrity the platform promotes.
The Launchpad platform transformed how students are tracked from the initial application process through graduation. Two years of follow-up calls for post-graduation support, employment retention, and wage progression tracking were also implemented. This allows the FRESHstart Kitchen to precisely understand their program's short-term and long-term impacts and inform future decision-making.
Benefits of Launchpad for the FRESHstart Kitchen include:
- Enhanced process efficiency
- Data accuracy for informed decision-making
- Improved security of sensitive information, including case notes
- Central location for all FRESHstart Kitchen data
- Better communication for and with students/graduates
As a result, Launchpad provides the opportunity to reevaluate how the FRESHstart Kitchen can do better in eliminating barriers and how to best support students who are currently in the program and two years post-graduation.
Customer Success
Josh Cosner
Kinxeus Group CIO
"We had done a significant amount of research on best industry practices and software to support that. We were very interested in Launchpad because it was built in Salesforce, and had a workforce development specific starting line, and is very flexible."
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