STATES DINER – Culinary School Program
About the program
States Diner is a Culinary School Program for orphans, incarcerated youth aging out of private and government foster care centers in El Salvador, or government education support programs. The program is a combination of four projects in five locations: a restaurant called States Diner, a bakery called States Bakes, and two snack bars called States Diner Café and our newest site on the other side of the city, States Diner Station.
Located in the heart of San Salvador, States Diner is a 60s style North American restaurant, a family-friendly environment with a menu of North American dishes. We don't offer Wi-Fi, we don't have televisions, and we don't serve alcohol. We make our own bread and desserts for the diner, station, and café locations in the States Bakes bakery. We also bake special bread for other local restaurants, and we offer pastries to customers who visit us at the bakery. We have two Snack Bar locations in Parque Cuscatlán, a beautiful public park near downtown. It is an excellent place to go with family and friends. We serve hotdogs, nachos, popcorn, wraps, coffee, pastries, and more.
How does it work
In El Salvador, when you are eighteen years old in a government orphanage, you are released, regardless if you have a place to go or not. Because of their level of education, the boys and girls cannot find jobs. Some are moved from one center to another for reasons like behavior, abuse, medical conditions, disabilities, etc. These moves between centers tend to interrupt their educational progress; they sometimes stop studying for an entire year because of this. We have had cases of boys and girls with little or no education, ranging from 4th grade to high school, and most formal jobs in El Salvador require at least a high school diploma (11th grade). These young adults are at the highest risk of becoming homeless, involved in gangs, prostitution, or starting to use drugs.
The Culinary School Program is a two-year job opportunity with four projects for young adults. The program is based on trust, loyalty, and responsibility. We have different areas in which they can develop skills, knowledge, and work experience: Kitchen (Preparation), Wait Staff (Customer Service), Dishwashing, and cleaning (general staff). They can start doing simple tasks like sweeping, washing dishes, or maybe just opening the door to greet the customers. Hopefully, they will grow into different positions that will teach them new skills for a job after they leave the program. We provide references on their resume.
We partner with many private orphanages, government organizations, such as CONNA, ISNA, USAID, Cambia Tu Vida, and other NGOs. These organizations and NGOs share the history of the young adult when we first set up an interview so that we may learn his/her basic story and determine what abilities they have. At that point, we explain what the Culinary School Program is all about. Once they have been interviewed, we offer them training in one of our different locations, depending on their skills and our open job positions. This project started out as a way to employ our young adults in our transition homes. However, we quickly realized that it was almost impossible for them to get a job, even in a fast-food restaurant or gas station, without a high school education.
We train most of them from the very beginning because they have never held jobs before. We are the first interview that they have ever had, and after the interview, we give them feedback on how they could have done better. Because they have not had previous work experience, we have to talk about showing up early so you are on time, wearing appropriate clothing, and maintaining proper hygiene. Most of them come from such poor backgrounds, they just do not know. They usually start in an entry-level position in the kitchen area (prep, dishwasher, janitor, etc.) and then graduate to wait staff after learning the menu. This allows them to begin
understanding how each project works, and we give them a 30-day trial period where they are assigned. We then evaluate them and let them know how to improve so they can start as a full-time employee.
After a young adult has worked for two years in the program, we review their performance as an employee and talk with them about their strengths and weaknesses. We give them a culinary school diploma and refer them to other restaurants, hardware stores, and other businesses so they can start a new life as an employee. Suppose a young adult in the program has exceeded expectations and has shown respect, responsibility, proactiveness, and capabilities to become a leader. In that case, we sometimes offer the young adult a management position to work for the Foundation as a permanent employee, training the next generation.
STATES DINER HISTORY
Sus Hijos / His Children Foundation opened the States Diner’s first location in El Salvador, located in “Paseo General Escalón 4014, Col. Escalón, San Salvador.” This school-restaurant allowed us to provide job opportunities for young adults coming from government and private orphanages, centers, prisons, and educational programs for children and youth.
Sus Hijos / His Children Foundation opened the States Diner’s first location in El Salvador, located in “Paseo General Escalón 4014, Col. Escalón, San Salvador.” This school-restaurant allowed us to provide job opportunities for young adults coming from government and private orphanages, centers, prisons, and educational programs for children and youth.
States Bakes opened. It was just a small area in the States Diner where we started baking our own bread for our burgers, hot dogs, French toast, bagels, biscuits, sweets, etc. The restaurant began providing custom-ordered bread for other local businesses in San Salvador that knew about our culinary program and wanted to help kids.
States Bakes opened. It was just a small area in the States Diner where we started baking our own bread for our burgers, hot dogs, French toast, bagels, biscuits, sweets, etc. The restaurant began providing custom-ordered bread for other local businesses in San Salvador that knew about our culinary program and wanted to help kids.
States Diner Café opened two locations in Parque Cuscatlán, with the help of USAID, the embassy of the United States in El Salvador, and The Howard G. Buffett Foundation. The park went through an extensive remodeling of over 20 million dollars. The park granted us the exclusivity of being the only two snack stands in the area. These locations are a great asset to our program. We don’t pay rent or utilities for these two locations, and they generate income for the program’s sustainability and give us the opportunity to hire 15 other young adults who otherwise would not be able to find employment.
States Diner Café opened two locations in Parque Cuscatlán, with the help of USAID, the embassy of the United States in El Salvador, and The Howard G. Buffett Foundation. The park went through an extensive remodeling of over 20 million dollars. The park granted us the exclusivity of being the only two snack stands in the area. These locations are a great asset to our program. We don’t pay rent or utilities for these two locations, and they generate income for the program’s sustainability and give us the opportunity to hire 15 other young adults who otherwise would not be able to find employment.
we moved our project States Diner to an almost new two-story building with an upgraded electrical system, twice the parking spaces, a refrigeration unit, located just one block away from our old location, but with more exposure. We are truly blessed to be in this new location. One hurdle we had to overcome was that we could not move the bakery to the new location, because there was just not enough dedicated space for a bakery. However, God had so much more in store for us! We had to move the States Bakes bakery, and now it has its own location for the first time. This has been an improvement to the bakery project, and now we are expecting to open a third shift soon and expand the bakery so that we will be able to offer more jobs to young adults. It also has dedicated office space for the Foundation to operate as a proper nonprofit.
In December of 2020, we received an unexpected grant from the German Embassy. We opened a 5th location called the States Diner Station, similar to an old-fashioned one-room diner with bar seating and only 4 tables. This location is on the other side of the city, close to the American Embassy and next to many different offices. We have a different menu and are now offering a drive-up service. “The Station” gives us the opportunity to hire another twelve young adults.
we moved our project States Diner to an almost new two-story building with an upgraded electrical system, twice the parking spaces, a refrigeration unit, located just one block away from our old location, but with more exposure. We are truly blessed to be in this new location. One hurdle we had to overcome was that we could not move the bakery to the new location, because there was just not enough dedicated space for a bakery. However, God had so much more in store for us! We had to move the States Bakes bakery, and now it has its own location for the first time. This has been an improvement to the bakery project, and now we are expecting to open a third shift soon and expand the bakery so that we will be able to offer more jobs to young adults. It also has dedicated office space for the Foundation to operate as a proper nonprofit.
In December of 2020, we received an unexpected grant from the German Embassy. We opened a 5th location called the States Diner Station, similar to an old-fashioned one-room diner with bar seating and only 4 tables. This location is on the other side of the city, close to the American Embassy and next to many different offices. We have a different menu and are now offering a drive-up service. “The Station” gives us the opportunity to hire another twelve young adults.