Fire Camp Inmates Attend Culinary Classes

05/08/2013

Inmates at the Inmate Fire Training Facility are learning new things every day. When the inmates graduate from the 80 hour fire training program, they are later assigned to one of the five L.A. County Fire Department fire camps here in Los Angeles County. While at the Inmate Fire Training Facility or one of the five fire camps, they are responsible for cooking their own breakfast and dinner. In order to prepare them for that task, they must first attend a "Safe Food Handling" class. The class consist of approximately 50 hours of classroom instruction, taught by an experienced cook employed by LA Works ( http://www.laworks.org ). At the conclusion of the class, they are awarded a "Safe Food Handling" certificate. This is the same certificate required by all employees working at any California restaurant.

The inmates are then provided the opportunity to put the skills they learned in the class into action by preparing the breakfast and dinner for the 180 inmates currently in the fire camp. Every day, Monday through Friday, inmates from the fire camp prepare breakfast and dinner from scratch, under the supervision of Los Angeles County Food Services Cooks.