Complimentary ProStart, Foodsafety and ServSuccess Materials Available Now!
We have funding opportunities available to eligible ProStart instructors to assist with purchasing ProStart scantrons/online codes and Foodsafety Training such as ServSafe, SafeStaff and ServSuccess!
ProStart Scantrons and/or Online Codes
It is testing season! Get your ProStart scantrons and/or online codes now before the big rush. Every CURRENT ProStart instructor, who will also be teaching ProStart during the 2021-2022 school year, is eligible to receive $1000 worth of ProStart scantrons and/or online codes. Click here to let us know what you want. For this special offer, all the orders must be placed using this link. All material must be requested no later than May 14.
Foodsafety Training
If you have not already requested free Foodsafety materials, each CURRENT ProStart instructor, who will also be teaching ProStart during the 2021-2022 school year, is eligible for $750 worth of Foodsafety Training. You can purchase ServSafe or SafeStaff. Use the link above to request your Foodsafety Training.
ServSuccess
ServSuccess was introduced last year by the National Restaurant Association. It is a stackable foodservice industry credential. The entry level certification is Certified Restaurant Professional (CRP). In the perfect world (which we do not live in), the COA will unlock the CRP. We do intend to submit the CRP for DOE’s 2022-2023 CAPE list. Individuals must have 400 hours of industry experience along with the ServSafe exam to be eligible to sit for the CRP. No training is required but five modules are offered. Using the link above, you may order up to $200 in ServSuccess materials, which will allow you to take the five courses and the exam. The link below will provide you with additional information on CRP.
ProStart Teacher Training Institute
Thank you to all who have registered for the 2021 ProStart Teacher Training! Emails have been sent to everyone that completed the registration form. If you registered for the event and have attended more than three years, you are currently on the waiting due to space limitations based on CDC guidelines. As soon as the allowable number of attendees is finalized, we will let you know.
Teacher Training will take place June 22-25, 2021 at Keiser University Sarasota campus. The agenda is being finalized now and will go out soon.
Please let us know if you have any questions about the event.
FRLAEF Scholarship Applications
CURRENT STUDENTS–APPLICATION CLOSED
The FRLAEF will award approximately $70,000 in scholarships during the 2020-2021 school year! The application closed at the end of April. The FRLAEF expects to notify applicants of their status by May 12, 2021.
FORMER STUDENTS–APPLICATION STILL OPEN!
The FRLAEF will award two to three $1,000 scholarships to students who are currently enrolled in a post-secondary culinary, foodservice or hospitality program. Please get the word out to your former students!
Application deadline for postsecondary students is May 21, 2021
Clay County ProStart Competition
On April 29, 2021 a few Clay County ProStart schools participated in a county-wide competition. The teams used the Florida ProStart Culinary Competition rules to create a meal in 60 minutes. A special thank you to our industry representatives who judged the event and to Middleburg High School for hosting it. Congratulations to the winners!
1st Place: Middleburg High School, Amy Surita, ProStart teacher
2nd Place: Ridgeview High School, Amy LaPierre, ProStart teacher
3rd Place: Keystone Heights High School, Laura Leach, ProStart teacher
Duval County ProStart Competition
On Wednesday, May 5, 2021, Duval County held an in-county ProStart competition. Frank H Peterson Academies and Sandalwood High School went head-to-head using the Florida ProStart Culinary Competition rules. Thanks to all our industry judges and to Frank H Peterson for hosting the event! The winning team was:
Frank H Peterson Academies, Susan Dougherty, ProStart teacher
UCF Rosen College News
The Spring semester is winding down at the UCF Rosen College, but we are gearing up for a busy summer. Our Chef Instructors will be developing a new video demonstration series specially tailored to ProStart students, recorded live in our state of the industry kitchens. More information coming soon. As the Covid-19 situation improves, this Fall we are preparing for a full return to face-to-face classes and labs with newly upgraded sanitation and social distancing policies in place. Also, the UCF Rosen College is proud to announce that we are partnering with the National Restaurant Association “ProStart Passport” program. Students admitted to UCF, that earned the ProStart Certificate of Achievement and choose to study Foodservice and Restaurant Management at Rosen College, will be awarded 250 Professional Rosen Experiential Portfolio (P.R.E.P.) hours. (That is 25% of the required hours of the internship program!) We would like to help your students take their ProStart experience to the next level with our Restaurant and Foodservice Management degree. Please contact [email protected] for more information.
Florida ProStart School Wins Rachael Ray Grant!
Chipley High School was awarded a 2021 Rachael Ray Foundation ProStart Grow Grant in the amount of $5,000! Congratulations to Sandra Solger, ProStart instructor, and her students. The award was based on essays submitted by Ms. Solger and her ProStart students. The grant award may be used to expand and grow the ProStart program at Chipley High School.
ProStart Teacher Created YouTube Videos for ServSafe Training
Christopher Bates, ProStart teacher at Wekiva High School has created several videos on YouTube that sync up with ServSafe chapters. His intention is to give students learning from home some online content that would interest them.
Culinary Skills & Education Summit at JWU
Johnson & Wales University (JWU) Charlotte campus is hosting an in-person workshop for culinary teachers July 26-July 28. The registration deadline is June 30. Contact Mandy Hines for more information at [email protected].
FOR DETAILS AND TO REGISTER CLICK HERE
Martin County High School Seeks Interim Culinary Teacher
Martin County High School has an interim culinary position open for the 2021-2022 school year. If you are interested, please contact Shaun Southwick at [email protected].
Pre-Register Now for the NRAEF Educators of Excellence Event
The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF) is hosting a virtual Educators of Excellence event on Thursday, May 20 from 6:00 to 6:30 pm EST. All teachers who pre-register will be entered to win $10,000! All ProStart educators will be entered to win additional prizes.
CLICK HERE for more info and to register!
Coast Guard Bonus for Culinary Careers
Click on picture to enlarge.
CAPE List
As you know, the ProStart Certificate of Achievement will be removed from DOE’s CAPE funding list at the end of the 2020-2021 school year. (It is still on the list for the current school year.) ServSafe remains on DOE’s CAPE funding list. Historically, ProStart instructors favor the ServSafe exam over the ProStart COA which is evidence by the fact that 63 COA’s were awarded during the 2019-2020 school year while 4278 ServSafe exams were administered.
In addition to ServSafe, ACF’s Certified Fundamentals Cook is also on the CAPE list for the 2021-2022 school year. To earn the Certified Fundamentals Cook students must pass a written and practical exam. The exams can be proctored at your schools but require a culinary industry professional, who is not the class instructor.
ACF does not require a specific curriculum be used to prepare for the exams. The instructor simply must show the material is being taught as part of the coursework. The ProStart program does meet the requirement. In the future, NRA may release a crosswalk between the ACF standards and the ProStart curriculum. In the meantime, the link below provides a blueprint for the certification.
https://www.nocti.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/JRCulArts4536.pdf
The FRLA does intend to submit the ServSuccess program for the CAPE list for the 2022-2023 school year. For the 2021-2022 school year, programs will have to rely on ServSafe and the CFC.
Earning COA Hours During a Pandemic
The National Restaurant Association has approved the following alternatives to industry hours through the end of the 2020-2021 school year:
- Students can set up their own YouTube channel. They can feature basic skills, like knife cuts and mother sauces, up to complex multistage dishes. If the students combine the work of planning, costing, practicing, filming and creating, editing and evaluating, this could be a pretty big project for each video.
- Provide meals as part of a service project. Hours verification provided by teacher if teacher-led, or by parent to teacher
- Run their home kitchen as if it were a café, creating menus and pricing for items cooked for families. Students who work for student-based enterprises at their schools will find this familiar. Hours verification provided to teacher by parent
- Create meals for their families (taking the menus and pricing from the option above out of the equation); there must be a bare minimum of work done – students cannot earn hours for making toast and bowls of cereal, for example. Hours verification provided to teacher by parent
- Participate in non-ProStart but still industry-specific learning modules i.e. ServSuccess/CRP modules. Educators must create a worksheet that students must complete to earn any hours associated with these modules to ensure active learning. Hours verification provided by teacher.
- Essay/Capstone project. Create an essay regarding leadership in the industry, with the incorporation of COVID-19. Students would be expected to describe what they would do if they had a restaurant and were faced with the decisions that our real life restauranteurs are facing. This would be a good case study and involve research as they could see which restaurants in their areas are still open, which ones are not, which ones closed permanently, limited menus, limited hours, delivery, grocerant, etc. and find if there are trends or similarities. Hours verification provided by teacher if teacher-led, or by parent to teacher
Recently Remodeled Your ProStart Kitchen?
If you have recently remodeled your ProStart kitchen we would love to hear from you! Instructors are constantly looking for remodeling advice and we would love to share what you have learned along the way. Email Laura Rumer at [email protected] if you can help.
Hospitality Industry Internships
The Hospitality Industry Internship (HII) provides the opportunity for Florida ProStart instructors to work in a 
foodservice/lodging establishment for at least 40 hours. Once the required paperwork has been processed, the participant will receive a personal check for $600.
To qualify for an HII, the instructor must teach the ProStart curriculum during the 2020-2021 school year. If you are already employed at a restaurant or hotel, you MAY NOT use that site for your internship. The restaurant/hotel must be a new work experience for you, not somewhere you have worked before or used as an HII internship location.
The applicant must secure a position at a foodservice facility where a minimum of 40 hours of hands-on experience is guaranteed. The host location may pay the recipient but is not required to do so.
The FRLAEF will award 11 HII’s this school year on a first-come, first-served basis. So apply NOW! Work experience may begin once the applicant receives an award notification from the FRLAEF.
Online Resources Page–Updated with Virginia ProStart Content
The FRLAEF online resource page is being updated continuously with new information.
CLICK HERE to go to the page where you will find information about ProStart e-books, chapter animations and videos, foodsafety resources and more. In case you missed it, we have also made available all the notes from our Best Practice zoom meetings on this page.
First Edition Foundations Phasing Out June 2022
The first edition of Foundations of Restaurant Management & Culinary Arts will phase out in June 2022. After June 2022 NRAEF will not longer grade ProStart exams relating to the first edition of the textbooks. In order to remain a ProStart school and to test your students with the ProStart exams, you must have transitioned to at least the 2nd edition no later then June of 2022.
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