2023 Opportunities for Education Scholarship Fundraising Event
Thursday, September 28 - 5:30 p.m.
Food Innovation Center at Kalamazoo Valley Community College
224 E. Crosstown Parkway, Kalamazoo, MI 49001
The 2023 Opportunities for Education Scholarship Fundraising Event will take place on Thursday, Sept. 28 at 5:30 p.m. at the Food Innovation Center at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, 224 E. Crosstown Parkway in downtown Kalamazoo.
The event will feature chefs from some of the region's most popular restaurants as well as a graduate from our culinary program and current student and faculty chefs from the college's culinary and brewing programs. Tours among the vegetables, flowers and herbs growing in the Food Innovation Center's greenhouse will be available along with beer, wine and other beverages.
This student scholarship fundraising event helps the KVCC Foundation provide scholarships for students with financial needs at Kalamazoo Valley. Support of the event helps to make a difference in the lives of our students.
Culinary Training Changed Leena Mergen's Life Portage native Leena Mergen, 51, has worked in restaurants since she was 16, but knew that she needed an education to truly feel secure in the culinary workforce. She's now employed at Kalamazoo Valley Community College as a support specialist with the community culinary and nutrition program where she puts her training to work helping others.
Mergen's first job was washing dishes at Sunset Bowling Lanes in Vicksburg. From there, she moved up to working as a line cook and baker at the Black Swan restaurant. At the age of 23, she moved to Pennsylvania to work in a family member's inn. What was supposed to be a six-month assignment turned into 10 years and a love story that resulted in her marriage to Steve Head, the inn's sous chef.
Steve died in a car accident when the couple's daughter was four and son was four-months-old. The children are now both college-aged. Mergen made ends meet by cleaning houses when her children were young. Still, she wanted more stability. "I started to have a lot of fear about my future - straight up fear for my future," Mergen said. "I saw education as my only way to break out of my situation. I felt like I was unemployable." more
Get Your Cup of Joe from Water Street Coffee The KVCC Foundation has been selected by Water Street Coffee as the featured non-profit organization and will be eligible to receive donations from customers who download the Water Street loyalty rewards app. For every dollar spent, customers gain points. Once enough points are earned, customers can then in turn use them for discounts on their orders or donate the equivalent to the local featured non-profit organization. See more detailshere.Update Your Contact Information
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