NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — For many students, a job in hospitality is their first. 

“The ribs are my personal favorite. The wings, thats my brothers he also works here,” said Saquan Mitchell, an employee of the BBQ and Sunshine Food Truck and a student in the F Bites Program.

What You Need To Know

  • The leisure and hospitality industry lost over 700,000 workers in January 2024, but 1.05 million people were hired into the industry that same month

  • According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that uptick is expected to continue, with the culinary industry specifically expected to grow about 8 percent between 2023 and 2033

  • The F Bites program gives students the culinary skills and the life skills they need to be apart of that growth

 

For Mitchell, being a chef is his dream.

“I’ve always had a passion for trying to cook, you know helping out the family having to cook for my little siblings,” he said.

He works closely with Chef Bobby Anderson, founder of the F Bites program, which teaches students in middle and high school culinary skills and life skills.

“Most of the come from high risk and different types of bad neighborhoods that we kind of give them these soft skills and we train them and then we put them in the commerce district and we pay them to go to work,” said Anderson. 

Students are taught through enrichment in the classroom, and vocational learning in the kitchen.

“We do that through food and once they get acclimated within the classrooms, they come right out here in the most important area of Niagara Falls in the commerce district, and they hold their own,” Anderson said.

With responsibilities like working with customers and the keeping up with the number of times, they change their gloves throughout the day.

“About 50 to 60. It’s a lot, but you wanna keep the food clean, you wanna keep everybody safe and happy,” said Mitchell.

“Ninety eight percent of the workforce development here is student lead. So it is actually run by all the students,” said Anderson. 

Helping students like Mitchell reach their dreams.

“When I first got this job I didn’t know how to keep my money, save it, but after continuously getting more and more I just learned you got to save it, invest it in something,” he said. “About 50 percent of all the money I get from here I put into a college fund so I can save for the future.” 

“Thats what they gain, the confidence to do anything that they want in the world,” said Anderson.