Program aims to teach Métis youth culinary skills for future employment Initiative a collaboration between the MMF, Red River College Polytechnic By: Gabrielle Piché Posted: 4:48 PM CST Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024

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Perhaps some Métis teachings with that job training?

As the hospitality industry continues to struggle with labour shortages, a novel program aims to teach Métis youth culinary skills for future employment.

The program will start small. Me-yaw-sin Micowin, which means “good food,” will accept 12 students to its free 12-week program.

The initiative is a collaboration between the Manitoba Métis Federation, Red River College Polytechnic, the Further Education Society and Bistro on Notre Dame.

“It’s been very difficult to find staff,” noted Dean Herkert, Bistro on Notre Dame’s owner.

The Métis chef will teach Me-yaw-sin Micowin’s students. He anticipates some pupils cooking in his kitchen — and he may hire them on.

Manitoba had around 3,700 restaurant and accommodation job vacancies last spring, according to numbers provided by the Manitoba Restaurant and Foodservices Association.

The restaurant industry hasn’t fully rebounded from the pandemic, Herkert added.

“We want more staff, but it’s kind of like, ‘Do we have the customers to pay for the staff?’” he said.

Regardless, he’s hopeful to draw new people to the industry.

Herkert also envisions more Indigenous restaurants in Manitoba as a result of the new training program.

“Cooking seems to be a lost skill … just as importantly, (we’ll be) getting in touch with our culture.”–Dean Herkert

He plans to teach traditional cooking methods and dishes, like smoking meat and making pemmican. He cooks with foraged berries and wild rice.

“Cooking seems to be a lost skill,” he mused. “Just as importantly, (we’ll be) getting in touch with our culture.

“I think that’s a key part, getting in touch with the past and… bridging it into the future.”

It was through a friend that Herkert connected with the Further Education Society, an Alberta-based organization working with Indigenous groups on learning initiatives and training.

Herkert assisted the charity during an event last year; after, the group decided to build an employment program for Manitoba Métis youth.

Red River College Polytechnic signed on to Me-yaw-sin Micowin. The program will use the post-secondary’s Notre Dame campus kitchen, among other spaces used for its Indigenous education courses.

Me-yaw-sin Micowin will launch in May or June. The Further Education Society (FESA) hopes the program will continue for years — the goal is always to be sustainable, according to Elaine Cairns, the non-profit’s co-executive director.

FESA will look to train Métis facilitators to deliver future iterations of the program. It hopes to draw youth who “maybe haven’t been experiencing success in the workplace,” Cairns stated.

This could be a first dip of the toes at college life for some, noted Isabel Bright, Red River College Polytechnic’s dean of the School of Indigenous Education.

“We are hoping that one of the outcomes will be for students to come on campus, feel comfortable, learn about the Indigenous culinary program,” she said.

Mentorship and life skills training will be incorporated into the cooking course.

The Manitoba Métis Federation is referring students and is targeting unemployed citizens. However, all youths are welcome, said John Fleury, the MMF’s minister of Métis employment and training.

The MMF will work with citizens who contact the Indigenous government and show interest in the program.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com