“I have to change my resume now,” said Michelle Polli, standing in a bustling, modern kitchen at the Next Key Center at Hamilton Parkway.

On break from her duties with the Fresh Starts Culinary Academy, Polli was every bit the food services professional in a white chef’s jacket. At the end of her day, her commute is just a few seconds' walk to the studio apartment she rents through Homeward Bound of Marin.

Homeward Bound offers job training and transitional housing to people without a place to live. While they’re rebuilding or reinventing their lives, residents can enroll in the Fresh Starts academy and learn job skills they can use in the commercial food industry.

Before Polli became a cooking student, she was living in transitional housing at the Voyager Carmel Center in San Rafael, stalled in a career in catering.

“As far as my knowledge and experience, it was all front-of-the-house as opposed to in the kitchen,” she said. “I had always wanted to go to cooking school, but I didn’t have the $26,000 to go.”

Fresh Starts is free to clients of Homeward Bound and costs only $65 for those who come through the Marin Office of Education’s Regional Occupation Program. About 75 percent of students are referred through Homeward Bound.

When Polli graduates from the program in June, she’ll combine her newfound kitchen skills with her former experience, and she’ll have the free ServSafe Certificate that will allow her to work in commercial kitchens. 

The future’s evolving, and Polli’s polished and confident as she greets it.

“I’m kind of waiting to see what develops,” she said.

Polli’s group of veteran students was preparing food for a Kaiser Permanente event planned that night in the Key Room, the on-sight dining room at the Next Key Center. The menu was posted on a clipboard and included fresh-baked rolls for the sandwiches.

In another part of the kitchen, 10 new students surrounded a clean, metal cooking table with rapt attention. Director of Culinary Services Carol Menard meticulously instructed them on how to dice onions and carrots. They held kitchen knives they had just learned to sharpen.

Menard created Fresh Starts Culinary Academy 10 years ago. She became acquainted with Homeward Bound when her business, the Cleaver’s Edge, was asked to bring meals to the organization’s tent at Hamilton. She provided meals for three years. 

One year, Menard served Christmas Eve dinner to the homeless clients.

“That Christmas Eve, they took my heart,” she said.

The tent has since given way to the large Next Key Center that includes housing and on-sight job training, and serves as Fresh Starts’ headquarters.

“It’s not just learning to cook,” Menard said, frequently stopping to answer questions from her students. “It gives real-world skills to students who know they need to watch the clock. We’re trying to teach them to work in any aspect of a commercial kitchen.”

“It’s a very symbiotic relationship” between the school and the catering business, said executive chef Jacques Kirk. “We try to involve as many of the students as possible.”

“Whey they leave here, they’re entry level or a little bit more than entry level.”

Fresh Starts works with such local businesses as Wells Fargo, Circle Bank, Bank of Marin, the Buck Institute, Kaiser Permanente and the Novato Charter School. It  hosts events in the Key Room and caters off-campus. The kitchen also makes Halo Truffles, which can be ordered by the public.

”It’s remarkable when you see these students come in and they put on their uniforms and they really transform themselves,” said Mary Kay Sweeney, executive director of Homeward Bound of Marin. 

“We did invest an awful lot in making this place a teaching kitchen,” she said. “It has all the equipment that any student would ever encounter in any food service kitchen. We are so excited about having the opportunity for people to move out of homelessness.”

“We’re a busy place,” said Rosalie Arcadi, events and catering coordinator. 

“We train them, and then they go out to meet the world.”

COOKING CLASSES

Fresh Starts offers monthly cooking classes that are open to the general public.

From 7 to 9 p.m. Feb. 8, chef Luis Realpozo will present Wine & Chocolate for Givers where participants can learn the technique of making hand-rolled truffles. The event costs $45 and includes wine, dessert and take-home chocolates.

From 6:30 to 9 p.m. March 10, chef Tom Hudgens will teach "Cooking with Commonsense." It costs $49 and includes a full meal.

For more information about Fresh Starts Culinary Academy, call 382-3363 x214.