This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Peter Hodgson feeds thousands of University of Utah students each day.
Chartwells' executive chef struck a casual tone rattling off the inventory for Thursday morning's meal preparation: 380 pounds of turkey breasts and 20 whole turkeys, 100 pounds of green beans, 250 pounds of potatoes, 60 pounds of butter, and, ho-hum, eight gallons of heavy cream.
But the scale of the effort will seem immense to some of the 40 young culinary students who will join Hodgson during Thanksgiving dinner preparations.
And so will the meal's impact.
Working in tandem since 2013, the Salvation Army and the Utah Restaurant Association's ProStart culinary training program endeavor to feed more than 1,000 families in need this Thanksgiving. On the menu: turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing — the works.
Alan Hurtado, an 18-year-old student at Weber Basin Job Corps, mentioned while he and a few classmates cleaned up their stations Tuesday night that it's especially gratifying to serve people who "don't have anything."
"Everyone deserves a warm meal," he said. "Everyone deserves a home."
Melva Sine, president of the Utah Restaurant Association, said more than 40 students had signed up to help. On Tuesday and Wednesday, they would peel potatoes, chop onions, dice carrots, etc. Starting at 6 a.m. Thursday, they would cook up to 25 turkeys at a time in the student union building's convection ovens. Some would bring family members to pitch in, she said.
ProStart is a National Restaurant Educational Foundation program developed to prepare high school juniors and seniors for all levels of culinary and hospitality work.
The state has given money to the program, but that funding was victim to a line-item veto from Gov. Gary Herbert after the Legislature's general session, only to be restored in a special session this summer. This fall, more than 1,200 students at 62 Utah high schools participated in the program.
Hodgson has been a ProStart mentor for more than a decade. He grew up in a family of 10 with a single mom, he said in a 2013 U. news release, and his local church ensured that his family had a meal befitting the holidays.
"These students now are here working for nothing," he said Tuesday. "They do it because they want to work and they want to give back."
Twitter: @matthew_piper