I'm raising money for basic needs so I can obtain a laptop to further my culinary career towards promoting healthy nutrition in low-income communities.

Why I'm using HandUp for my basic needs.

I am fundraising for a laptop so I can downsize and organize all culinary documentation that I have for my culinary profession. This would allow more space in my single-room dwelling. I am now attending the Smart Start Program through the Renaissance. It is a business class to develop our product and see how to best market it. I would like to further my development and a laptop would help me do so.

About me.

I've been living in San Francisco since 2011 in a single-dwelling SRO. I am a graduate from San Francisco State University. I have been recovering from an abusive marriage which dealt with verbal and mental abuse. I strive for excellence, health, and God's forgiveness. Basically, I want to be healthy and I want to support bringing communities together through health and food coordination.

My backstory.

I kept seeing advertisements for chef's programs. I was interviewed and accepted to culinary school, where I studied culinary book learning, hands-on food preparation, and completed an internship. As a part of my program, my internship focused on improving health conditions of senior citizens through nutrition where we served over 300 seniors a day. I graduated in 2012 with honors with a speech dedicated to senior citizens. I won the Three Bell Mental Health Award last year, and I have also received a Stress Management certification. I also took some online courses to supplement my nutritional studies around trends in the food and produce industry. Through my working experience with the restaurant and fast food industry, I have noticed that owners, managers, supervisors, and clientele are hesitant to accept your insight. I felt that I was always under the direction of supervision, where the meals were not inducing healthy habits and where dissatisfied customers were not indulging in nutritional value.

My goals, moving forward.

Moving around from one job to another, I decided to work for temporary catering agencies. With all of my experience cooking different meals in my professional culinary experience, I want to incorporate healthy living values into my recipes and meals so that low-income communities can have access to more nutritional values. My vision is to create homemade cooked meals that support immune systems. I feel that once people begin to indulge in the nutritional value, it can help prolong their health and extend their life expectancy.