The CC Pearce Culinary School is at the heart of what we do at Project Host. The program provides a pathway to financial stability for our students and teaches life skills that go beyond securing employment, including healthy cooking and creating meals on a budget. The program is built around giving back to Project Host and our community. Students’ training involves preparing meals for the Cooking for Kids program and working with our social enterprises—the HostMobile food truck and the Bakery—as interns.
Each Culinary School class runs for six weeks, Monday-Friday from 9AM-2PM and includes hands-on food preparation, ServSafe food safety instruction and certification, and employment readiness lessons to prepare students for gainful employment. The program comes at no cost to the student, as it is funded through scholarships. If you are interested in joining the program, learn more by reading through the information below, including answers to frequently asked questions.
Program Impact
over 200 graduates of the CC Pearce Culinary School since 2003
88 percent of graduates since january 2020 are employed
An annual average of over 40,000 free meals prepared for greenville-area children
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
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Anyone 18 years of age or older who can commit to the full six weeks of the program may attend.
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9AM-2PM every Monday-Friday for six weeks.
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The culinary school is free of charge to all students. Project Host does NOT pay students, but some students may qualify for payment though Goodwill, SCWorks, SNAP2Work, or other partnering programs.
There are paid opportunities at Project Host outside of the culinary school hours, such as Community Dinners and other special events, and paid internships with the food truck and bakery after graduation.
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You are allowed to have a maximum of three absences before you are dismissed from the program.
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Nothing.
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There is no uniform, but you should wear comfortable work pants with a t-shirt that you wouldn't mind getting dirty. We provide student shirts for use after the first day. Wear non-slip, rubber soled, closed toed shoes. If hair is long, please have it pulled back.
Meet the Instructor
Student Reggie (left) listens as Chef Cary (right) offers instruction.
Restaurant owner, executive chef, farmer, campfire cook, line cook, bartender, server—in 25 years, Chef Cary Wolfe has done it just about everything one can in the restaurant industry. Now he's begun a new chapter with Project Host.
Who was CC Pearce?
CC Pearce was a long-time supporter of Project Host. There was a natural affinity, given the Pearce family business was wholesale food distribution. The family ran Pearce-Young-Angel, which eventually became PYA/Monarch, one of the largest food distributors in the nation. CC Pearce supported the Project Host Soup Kitchen by offering a sizeable credit to PYA each year.
When CC Pearce passed away in 2002, his wife Betty wanted to do something to honor his memory. The following year, after the culinary school had been running in sub-optimal conditions, sharing the Soup Kitchen space with volunteers for a time, Sally Green approached Mrs. Pearce with the idea of naming the new school facility after CC Pearce.
“After I got all the information [about the culinary program], I said, ‘that was absolutely made to order for CC.’ I knew that would’ve made CC so happy. I loved the idea of people having a profession—a program to get them into something that they could do to support themselves. I thought that was fabulous! And through food, no less!”
