CCAC food service students serve those who serve them during special lunch in McCandless

Before chef Randy Herbe has his students touch a piece of food, he gives them something more important to digest.

“The first thing I teach them is respect … respect for others, respect for themselves and respect for me,” said Herbe, the instructor for Community College of Allegheny County’s Community Education Food Service and Instructional Design.

“That is such an important lesson to learn in life.”

That respect was on display Oct. 10 at the Allegheny County police and fire academies in McCandless. Herbe’s 15 students — who are in the vocational education training program, which offers food service training for students who need learning support — welcomed cadets from the police and fire academies and other first responders for a free lunch.

The food service students usually prepare meals for the cadets for 15 weeks each semester. The cadets usually pay a few dollars for a meal. But on Oct. 10, the meal was on the house, not just for the cadets, but for the other first responders, in appreciation for their work as this was Fire Prevention Week.

“This was a special, ‘thank you,’ from our students,” Herbe said.

The newest CCAC food service student crew began training at the academy in September, preparing and serving daily meals for as many as 35 cadets. This program is designed for students who best excel outside the typical college environment. They can train for careers in food service, indoor-outdoor building maintenance and environmental services.

They are sponsored by the state Office of Vocational Rehabilitation. Pittsburgh Public School students can utilize their Pittsburgh Promise funds. The cost is about $10,000 for the one-year training program and includes uniforms and transportation.

Feeding the firefighter cadets four days a week is one part of their hands-on training, which has several aspects, from washing pots and pans, to prep work, cooking entrees and making salads, side dishes desserts. Then they get to serve the food they’ve prepared.

They learn safety in the kitchen and how to grill and fry food.

Another aspect is the one day of classroom-type instruction at CCAC North campus in McCandless, where they go through mock job interviews and learn how to fill out an employment application.

On Oct. 10, the menu for cadets and first responders included macaroni and cheese, sloppy Joes and macaroni, pasta and broccoli salad. They had cake, cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies for dessert. All of the items were made from scratch, including the cheese sauce for the macaroni and cheese.

Making the cake was the best part, said student Tess Crouch, who added that feeding the first responders made her feel good. She started in the food service program this year.

“I love to cook,” said Crouch, who works part time at Giant Eagle bakery. “And it was fun to interact with them.”

It is a wonderful partnership, said Brett Whittenberger, lieutenant and director of the Allegheny County Police Academy. He said being able to have lunch so accessible for the cadets is wonderful because they don’t have a lot of time to leave the area and grab breakfast or lunch. They also get to see the students learning to cook. There is a food special each day, and some items — such as hamburgers, cheeseburgers and French fries — are made to order.

This setting helps everyone in their future careers, Whittenberger said. “It is good for our cadets and good for the students. This is spectacular.”

Seeing the students grow from not knowing much about the food service industry to being able to become employed in restaurants and bakeries and other culinary positions is rewarding, said Herbe, who has been in food service since 1977.

He worked his way up from dishwasher to chef, graduating from CCAC in the apprenticeship program in 1989. He also owned a restaurant. He has been in this position for five years.

He said two of the students in the fire-fighting program for high schools have inspired him to become a volunteer fire fighter. Twins and seniors Kaylie and Abbi Polliard from Fawn are so energetic about the fire-fighting program that Herbe wants to get involved.

Kaylie and Abbi have attended the firefighting program two days each month for three years.

Mike Krzeminski is a staff instructor at Allegheny County Fire Academy and a former teacher at Highlands. There are high school sophomores, juniors and seniors in the firefighting program. They learn all aspects of fighting fires.

“We show them that being a fire fighter is not just crawling down a hot hallway. There are other jobs in this profession,” Krzeminski said. “This is wonderful to see everyone interacting.”

The twins have experienced real-life situations. They’ve seen things in the past few years that most people don’t see their entire lives, Kaylie said.

“We both believe we can handle this,” Kaylie said.“I want to do this as a profession in some way because I want to help people. It’s not about the money. It’s about making a difference in life.”

Abbi said it’s important she and her sister are getting hands-on experience for their career paths, just like the CCAC food service students are for their profession.

“We all learn from one another,” Herbe said. “We want to teach the students about more than making and serving food.”

After the students are done serving their guests, they have a meal. When one of the cadets arrived while the students were eating, Herbe asked Crouch to make that person a to-go lunch.

Crouch got up from her seat and packed up a meal.

“These students can accomplish anything,” said Herbe, a pastor of First Church of Ford City. “They just need confidence. We help them build that confidence. This is the most awesome job in the world. What we do here, is we change lives.”