Now starting its 39th session, Conquering Homelessness through Employment in Food Services (CHEFS) is a 12-month cooking program created by Episcopal Community Services (ECS) in San Francisco to make homeless people employable in the foodservice industry. Eighty percent of CHEFS graduates acquire a job and a place to live, according to ECS.

The program includes classroom instruction, kitchen training in institutional and restaurant settings, job counseling and placement with coaching and follow-up. With the help of guest instructors representing San Francisco's best in foodservice, students learn standard cooking methods, food safety and sanitation, kitchen equipment, nutrition, meal planning, stock and sauce preparation and ethnic cooking methods. Guest instructors include Michael Kapash of LarkCreekSteak, Nancy Kux of Bakers Dozen, David Lawrence of 1300 on Fillmore, Dan Scherotter of Palio d'Asti, Eric Tucker of Millennium Restaurant and Rob Zaborny of Hayes Street Grill.

During their training, CHEFS students get hands-on experience through internships at restaurants such as Daffodil, Coi Restaurant, Nopa, Roots Restaurant at The Orchard Garden Hotel, Luques and Zingari Ristorante.

For more information, visit www.ecs-sf.org/programs/chefs.html.