Shelter residents go from streets to farm to table in Pine Street Inn’s iCater program

People who provide a helping hand to others navigating a difficult chapter are beacons of hope. Acts of kindness can be the spark that motivates someone to rebuild their life and illuminate the path forward.

There’s no better example of this than what’s happening at the Pine Street Inn, New England’s largest homelessness services provider — and specifically through their iCater program. Here’s this week’s nomination for the Joy Beat:

“I’m calling to nominate Melanie Cevetello, who has a really unique and powerful role in helping some of Boston’s most vulnerable people: the chronically homeless. Melanie has truly transformed the program since she arrived in 2022, and her leadership in the kitchen and at Pine Street is giving her trainees the opportunity to excel in an area of work that they would not have otherwise without the iCater program.”

Melanie Cevetello joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to share more about her work at the Pine Street Inn. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.

Arun Rath: First, I know it isn’t lost on you the amount of work you’re doing, and we’ll get into specifics in a moment. But first, I want to get your reaction to that nomination. How does it feel to hear that?

Melanie Cevetello: Well, I was surprised. You know, to me, the work that we’re doing here at Pine Street is just normal. It’s our every day. So it’s an honor to be nominated and have somebody think this is significant — so, it’s an honor. That’s all I can say.

Rath: Well, let’s talk about iCater in detail. This is the culinary job training program you run. First off, how did it get started?

Cevetello: I started at the program about two and a half years ago. The iCater program itself has been going on for many years, but this eight-week job training program was new, and my position as a job-training culinary instructor is new.

When I applied, it was an application for a chef. I am actually a registered dietitian with no proper culinary training, but my boss kind of took a chance on me.

One big thing I wanted to focus on was nutrition education and incorporating that into the culinary training. I’m grateful [my boss] took a chance on me. Being able to work on and develop the program has been a lot of fun.

Rath: Tell us about the training. It’s more than just culinary skills, right?

Cevetello: Yeah. So, you know, the core is the culinary training and preparing them to step into our production kitchen. In that first two months of training, they’re working with me in our training kitchen, which is on a much smaller scale of what you see downstairs in our production kitchen.

We’re teaching them the basics: knife skills, proper kitchen language — “behind,” “hot,” “sharp” — making sure they know the safety things. But the bigger thing that I really wanted to focus on was [an] expansion of that. I developed nutrition education where we talk about — for example — energy. That’s what I do with them their first week, because when I first started here, several of my trainees were telling me they’re very tired, they’re lacking energy.

It’s a lot of work to work in a kitchen for eight hours a day — a hot kitchen. In my first section on energy, we talk about: what are those things that we can look at to give us more energy? Staying hydrated and drinking water, exercise — going for a walk or run — and what a proper meal looks like.

We talk about prevention of health risk factors like high blood pressure and diabetes because I’ve seen a lot of my trainees struggling with these things, so the curriculum has really just built out from there.

It’s been very rewarding to see them pick up on things and be like, “Melanie, I had breakfast this morning!” or “I’m drinking water!” and to see them put it into action — and to see them be able to be more productive at work and feeling better about themselves. It’s really cool.

Rath: That’s great. Have you heard back from people who have been through the program and have gone on to culinary careers?

Cevetello: Yes! Some of them stay in touch. For example, one of my most recent students, Phil, is now working at the Faulkner Hospital. He actually is working with the dietitians in nutrition.

My first student from two and a half years ago, Dia, I just found out she got promoted at Brigham and Women’s to sous chef, so it’s really cool to be able to hear about where they end up.

Rath: Those are some pretty big success stories right there.

Cevetello: Yeah.

Rath: I know pretty much anytime that you’re teaching or training, you end up learning things yourself from your students. Was that the case with you? And what are some of the things you’ve picked up along the way?

Cevetello: I’m learning every day! I would consider myself also a student. I think the biggest thing I’ve learned is patience because everybody has gone through something different and is here for a different reason. Sometimes, I know their stories, and a lot of times, I don’t. I don’t know much about why they ended up in a shelter or in this program.

All I can do is be there for them in the training and offer kindness, patience, and [encourage them] to have fun and enjoy the program and just be there for them.

Rath: You said you didn’t have formal culinary training. I’m curious: how did you learn how to cook? Who taught you?

Cevetello: So, I grew up gardening in my grandfather’s garden. He lived outside the city and had this big vegetable garden, so I grew up from a young age seeing that farm-to-table style of cooking and just throwing everything in the kitchen sink in a pot of vegetables and making something really delicious out of it. That, I guess, stuck with me throughout my life and has become an important part of the program.

I guess, also, I come from a big Italian family, so we love to cook; we love to eat.

Rath: Love to feed people.

Cevetello: Love to feed people! Yeah, exactly.

And it’s really become a part of the program. I started classroom gardens, and I’ve taken them on trips to farms. We go to Stonefield Farm [in Acton], and we help them pick vegetables. It’s a really cool experience for the trainees to see: where is food coming from?

Also, because we receive weekly donations of fresh produce from Food for Free, which kind of developed. When I first started, I remember being like, “So what’s the budget for food that we can cook with?” And they’re like, “There’s no budget.” And I’m like, “OK. We need to be resourceful here.”

[Food for Free] gets a lot of their produce from the farm in Acton, so it’s really cool to be able to tell the trainees, “Hey, this is the food we’re cooking with, and now we’re going to go to the farm, and we’re going to help pick it. And this food is going to go to other people who need it besides us, as well. We’re going to do our part.”

[To see] how it all comes together is really cool, and the trainees feel like they can give back as well, which is really cool because that’s something they tell me often that they want to do.

If you’d like to nominate someone or something for the Joy Beat, leave us a voicemail at (617)-300-BEAT (2328).