education
Skyline Chili Helps Cincinnati Cooks! Graduate Further Her Training
Nicholas Lambrinides, great grandson and namesake of Skyline Chili founder Nicholas Lambrinides, bestowed the first annual Glenway Skyline Scholarship to Cincinnati COOKS! graduate Berenice Torres at the 100th graduation ceremony recently.
To commemorate their family legacy and support the Cincinnati community, four of Nicholas Lambrinides’ great grandsons contributed a $30,000 endowment to the Cincinnati COOKS! Program – meant to be given to graduates annually to further their education at the Midwest Culinary Institute at Cincinnati State. Berenice was chosen for her skill and ambition among other criteria. She is among 840 graduates the program has turned out in 10-week cycles over the past decade.
About Cincinnati Cooks!
Cincinnati Cooks! is a free, ten-week program of the FreeStore/FoodBank that prepares students with financial challenges who are looking to improve their lives, for work in the food service industry. During the program, professional cooks teach them culinary skills, along with job and life skills. The goal is help people age 18 and up to succeed both in the kitchen and in their personal lives. Cincinnati Cooks! students work with donated and purchased food in the Rosenthal
Community Kitchen.
What happens to the meals prepared by Cincinnati Cooks students?
Most of the snacks and meals prepared by Cincinnati Cooks! students are served at Kids Cafe. The Kids Cafe program provides free, hot, after-school meals to children who might otherwise go hungry outside of school.
Character Council Laying The Foundation For Community Success
Character…it starts with me.
That’s the tag line for a Cincinnati nonprofit, the Character Council of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, that is all about building positivity among children and adults in schools, religious congregations, businesses, families, and communities.
Building and strengthening character traits… what a great reason for an organization to exist!
Last year alone, more than 371,000 people were impacted with its message of good character. Among its strategies: the Council has trained and provided educational materials to more than 1000 Cincinnati police officers, employees of more than 60 local businesses, and more than 1200 local educators on promoting positive values; and offers presentations and information to the 
general community on good character.
Signing up as a ‘Businesses of Character’ means your company agrees to follow a four-step process to consciously create a culture in which good character is valued, promoted, taught, expected, and rewarded so that it becomes a platform for achieving company goals.
Westwood School is a ‘School of Character.
In 2009 staff of this Cincinnati Public School came to the Council when their students were showing a lack of respect for authority and brought anger into the classroom. At the time only 20% of parents were engaged in their children’s school activities.
Great for the community that educators wanted to be proactive. Westwood School became a ‘School of Character’ and worked with the Council in launching a comprehensive plan that promoted good character, addressed the root causes of behavior issues, and gave staff the tools they needed to succeed. Within its first year, teachers were already reporting less fighting and disciplinary referrals to the principal’s office declined 24%.
The organization is about to adopt its fourth CPS school and this summer it rolled out character education programs in ALL 26 Cincinnati Recreation Centers collectively serving about 2500 kids.
Flexibility: a willingness to change plans or ideas without getting upset.
If you are on Council’s email list or visit its website, you’ll be familiar with this trait. The word is the August ‘trait of the month’ and the organization offers ‘I will’ statement suggestions for putting those traits into motion. It is just one of the tools the Council offers to support community efforts to build positive energy.
And I’m all for positive energy!
To learn more about the Character Council of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, please click here to visit their website.
