Chef Richards Announced as Helping Harvest’s Director of Culinary Operations

from Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank

Helping Harvest is excited to welcome Chef Amanda Richards as the first Director of Culinary Operations for the Helping Harvest Community Kitchen, which is on schedule to open in January 2025. Chef Amanda will lead the kitchen in preparing delicious and nutritious meals for seniors and families in Berks and Schuylkill Counties.

Chef Amanda comes to Reading from Philadelphia with 20 years of culinary experience and has two degrees from the Culinary Institute of America. She most recently was part of the faculty at the Community College of Philadelphia, where she helped to empower culinary and hospitality students to achieve industry best practices through training, feedback, and job placement.

Chef Amanda has worked with several food rescue organizations in and around the Philadelphia area to increase awareness of food access for the students on campus, as well as throughout her career.

“I am very proud and excited to be part of this amazing project at Helping Harvest. My career and passion have always been about providing freshly prepared meals to people regardless of income. The impact these meals will have for seniors in Berks and Schuylkill counties will be the highlight of my career.”

”We are beyond excited to have Chef Amanda join our team at Helping Harvest,” said Jay Worrall, Helping Harvest President. “For us to have found such an outstandingly qualified leader to launch the Helping Harvest Community Kitchen makes us even more certain that this project will be a game-changer for the way we serve food-insecure people in our community.”

The Helping Harvest Community Kitchen is a 7,000-square-foot commercial kitchen currently under construction at 229 Washington St. in Reading. The Helping Harvest Community Kitchen will create heat-and-eat ready meals for hungry neighbors in Berks and Schuylkill Counties. This facility will allow Helping Harvest to accept bulk food donations, which will be used to prepare 2,500 meals weekly for distribution through our extensive pantry network. These meals will be made by students enrolled in the Helping Harvest Culinary Arts Training Program under the supervision of Chef Amanda and her team.

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Source: bctv