Whole Foods Market at Chambers Bay is celebrating the retailer’s 5% Community Giving Day on Thursday, Oct. 18. As part of Whole Foods Market’s deep commitment to its communities, it will donate 5% of the day’s net sales to Centerforce of Lakewood in support of its mentorship, education and development in its foodservice training program.
Centerforce’s Foodservice Education and Training Program is designed to provide clients with the skills necessary to gain employment in the foodservice industry. When our clients earn their food handler cards to gain employment in this industry through our help — it is one of the uncompensated services the Lakewood nonprofit provides its clients.
Your shopping purchase on Thursday, Oct. 18 at Whole Foods Market Chambers Bay, 3515 Bridgeport Way W. in University Place, will support these uncompensated services we provide as part of our Community Inclusion and Community Employment services.
An Individual Employment program client has a job washing dishes at a local Papa Murphy’s Pizza in Federal Way. It was his goal to get a job as a dishwasher. He said his favorite thing about his job right now is that when he finishes the dishes he gets to learn how to work on other tasks around the store such as food prep and making the dough. He was able to achieve all of this with the help of our job developers, Jordin and Jason, who found the perfect partnership with another local business.
“I am so appreciative of the support from Whole Foods Market. Their support is essential and enables us to continue to serve our clients in our Community Inclusion and Community Employment programs,” said Debby L. Graham, executive director at Centerforce.
Centerforce is proud to support National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). Held in October, NDEAM aims to educate about disability employment issues and celebrate the many and varied contributions of America’s workers with disabilities. Your shopping trip in October is one of the activities Centerforce is participating in to educate the community on disability employment issues and the role they play in fostering a disability-friendly work culture.
Celebrating our 50th year of service this year, Centerforce is a a private, not-for-profit 501 (c)(3), social service organization that provides employment training and assistance to over 300 individuals (adults and students) with developmental disabilities in the greater Puget Sound area. The individuals we serve have a wide range of disabilities and a number of barriers to traditional employment.