Continuing our series on experts in our field, today we have on Tom Suchuch to discuss the NM high school culinary program, ProStart. This is a national program with state level programs.  ProStart is part of a necessary conversaton about our current hiring challenges in the restaurant industry. The difficulty in finding and retaining either experienced and/or trainable staff is our latest challenge The industry business model is evolving quickly and restaurant owners have to adapt. Tom Schuch is a perfect choice -- his expertise as the Education Director in New Mexico's chapter of the National Restaurant Association can allow us to think about other avenues to find for hiring people. 

Tom Schuch has extensive experience. Tom has been in the food and beverage industry for over twenty years, is a ServSafe instructor with NMRA for the last 3 years and now is leading the ProStart progam. He leads other educational initiatives including ServSafe, Alcohol Server, and ManageFirst certifications.   He also serves as the Executive Director of the Hospitality Industry Education Foundation.

Links mentioned in this episode:

[email protected]

https://www.nmrestaurants.org/prostart-program/ https://chooserestaurants.org/programs/restaurant-ready/ https://chooserestaurants.org/programs/prostart

Here is their links mentioned in the show. This episode is intentionally making and effort to seed this information to food and drink businesses around the country.